The State Agency for Roads of Ukraine (Ukravtodor), within the framework of the National Program for the Renewal of Bridges, announces the completion of restoration work at 11 out of 103 objects planned for 2020.
Agreements on repairs on 60 bridges have also been drawn up to date: 39 of them are already in operation, and repairs of 21 bridges will begin in the near future, Ukravtodor reported on its Facebook page on Wednesday.
Another 30 bridges are in the procurement phase, and two are awaiting tender announcements.
Earlier, Ukravtodor reported that as of September 1, contractors completed work on the arrangement of the upper layer of 1,700 km of roads. Today, in general, work is being carried out on 4,000 km of roads of national importance.
The State Automobile Roads Agency of Ukraine, also known as Ukravtodor, is developing a five-year program for repair of 24,000 km of international, national and regional highways worth UAH 500 billion, acting Head of Ukravtodor Slawomir Nowak has said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
“Now, at the request of the President’s Office, we are preparing a program of repairs of the country’s main roads of M-N-R types with a total length of 24,000 km. We are calculating about UAH 500 billion for this program for five years,” he said.
The head of the state agency said that over the past few years, Ukraine has significantly increased prices for the main materials from which the asphalt mix is made: bitumen has doubled in price, and crushed stone prices grew 2.6 times.
He also said that he was considering attracting funds from international financial institutions (IFIs) for this program: European banks and the World Bank.
Earlier, Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan said in the media that it is needed 10 years and UAH 1 trillion for the repair of roads in Ukraine.
Germany’s state-run development bank (KfW) could provide EUR 60 million to Ukraine for the completion of construction of a breakwater and dredging works at the Odesa seaport and EUR 90 million for overhaul of H08 Zaporizhia-Mariupol highway and restoration of H32 Pokrovsk-Bakhmut-Mykhailivka road.
“Negotiations with KfW on a loan: EUR 60 million to complete the construction of a breakwater in the port of Odesa and EUR 90 million to overhaul H08 Zaporizhia-Mariupol roads,” Deputy Infrastructure Minister of Ukraine for European integration Viktor Dovhan wrote on his Facebook page.
At the same time, according to a posting on the website of the Infrastructure Ministry, Minister Volodymyr Omelyan confirmed Ukraine’s interest in borrowing from the Federal Republic of Germany in the amount of EUR 150 million (the KfW loan) provided for the restoration of transport infrastructure in the eastern regions of Ukraine. In particular, the Infrastructure Ministry plans to implement the following projects: the construction of a breakwater and the implementation of works to deepen the water area of the port of Odesa; repair works at the national road N08 Boryspil-Dnipro-Zaporizhia (through Kremenchuk)-Mariupol on the Zaporizhia-Mariupol road section and the restoration and improvement of the transport and operational condition of the H32 Pokrovsk-Bakhmut-Mykhailivka state-sustained highway.
According to the Infrastructure Ministry, Germany also expressed interest in participating in the modernization of the electric locomotives of JSC Ukrzaliznytsia and in electrifying the railways, in particular, in the south of Ukraine, near the ports.
In addition, as a result of negotiations with Germany, Ukraine will receive an additional 20,000 bilateral permits for road haulage, which will be valid until the end of January 2019.
In addition, the parties agreed to consider the possibility of increasing the quota of permits for 2019.
Ukrenergo has canceled the planned repairs of the 220 kV Luhansk TPP-Lysychansk power grid scheduled for June 15-19, the company’s press service has reported.
According to its data, in the current situation the Luhansk energy center’s power balance is ensured by the operation of only one unit at Luhansk thermal power plant (TPP).
“The work with such a minimum composition of equipment is unstable and it is very difficult to properly provide for overflows with 110 kV lines that connect Luhansk region with the rest of Ukraine,” the company noted.
In this regard, Ukrenergo is considering the possibility of carrying out scheduled repairs at the Luhansk TPP-Lysychansk transmission line to prepare for the autumn-winter season during a period when the balance sheet conditions will allow the station to operate with at least two blocks. The approximate date of repairs is October 2018.
