The State Automobile Roads Agency of Ukraine (Ukravtodor) has said that only 2% of inspected bridges are in a good condition, Ukravtodor Head Oleksandr Kubrakov said during the presentation of a concept of the government target economic program to restore bridges on automobile roads of general use and local roads for 2020-2025 held in Kyiv on Friday.
“A total of 35% out of 16,200 bridges and structures were examined. That is, we do not even have information about what condition they are in. We can say that only 2% of the bridges are in good condition,” he said.
Kubrakov said that most bridges were built in 1960-1970s (a total of about 8,700 structures).
In total, according to him, there are 16,155 man-made structures in Ukraine that fall under the terminology “bridges” in the corresponding government target program. Of these, only 35% were examined, namely, 5,631 structures.
Of the inspected bridges, 71% are state-owned and 15% are local. At the same time, only 36% correspond to modern standards in terms of weight and size.
According to Ukravtodor, 2% of the inspected bridges are serviceable, 10.6% are limitedly serviceable, 57.8% are functioning, 26.9% are limited to be used, and 2.7% are non-functioning.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine plans to expand the Big Construction program for building bridges, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal has said. “We plan to expand the program to building bridges,” he wrote in his Telegram channel.
The government intends to invest UAH 100 billion only in road construction this year, which would create at least 170,000 jobs, he said.
In addition, schools, kindergartens and stadiums are a priority for the Cabinet of Ministers. At the same time, work on such facilities should be completed before the start of the next school year.
The Big Construction program also includes the reconstruction of more than 200 reception departments in supporting medical facilities.
“A third of all funds from the program should be sent to the regions in May,” Shmyhal said.
During a working visit to Chernivtsi region Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan examined a bridge in the village of Roztoky of Putyla district, the press service of the Infrastructure Ministry has reported.
“In 2008, as a result of flooding, roads and bridges of Chernivtsi region were significantly damaged… In the continuation of the construction of a bridge in the village of Roztoky, UAH 75 million were provided. UAH 100 million will be sent this year for the bridge over the Prut River. These are real steps of restoring the infrastructure of Ukraine. I thank the President of Ukraine, who identified the infrastructure as a key priority, as well as the governments of [Arseniy] Yatsenyuk and [Volodymyr] Groysman, which make it possible to gradually change the road network, repair bridges and give people new quality of travelling Ukraine,” the ministry said on the official page in the Facebook network on Sunday night.
Total subventions from the Road Fund for local roads in 2019 will be about UAH 15 billion.
“This is a large amount of financing, which has never happened before. All these funds should be used to restore roads and bridges in the regions, 20% of the funds can be spent on public roads. But for great effect, I urge local authorities to co-finance road repairs,” Omelyan said.
