The State Automobile Roads Agency of Ukraine, also known as Ukravtodor, in 2020-2021 seeks to raise Ukraine’s score in the Global Competitiveness Report of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in the quality of roads by 10-15 positions compared with the score for 2019 (114 rank).
Ukravtodor Heaad Oleksandr Kubrakov presented these plans on his Facebook page after a roundtable in the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine.
“In fact, there are about 15 major market players, 60 or more auction participants in the projects of IFIs [international financial institutions], stable financing from the Road Fund (UAH 31.5 billion) and additional financing under government guarantees, as well as from funds that Ukraine received under the award of the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce. We are working on what is needed to improve both perception and reality – liberalization of pricing, typical tender documentation and resistance to “tender trolls,” he said.
According to the data released by Kubrakov, in 2019, four companies were the leaders in the number of complaints to the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine, with a total of 720 complaints.
“We are waiting for the certification of WiM systems and initiate the signing of the Memorandum of Virtue in the field of freight transportation. I am sure that Ukrainian roads cannot be saved with fines and restrictions alone. We need an active position of all market players,” the head of the agency added.
The State Automobile Roads Agency of Ukraine, also known as Ukravtodor, plans to build and reconstruct nine orbital roads of 101.5 km long in 2020, the press service of the agency said on Thursday. “Ukrainian cities should be freed from transit traffic, because it reduces the number of jams and improves the transit potential of the road network. In addition, it will positively influence traffic safety, air quality, the life of the road surface and reduce the number of accidents,” Head of Ukravtodor Oleksandr Kubrakov said.
In particular, in 2020, it is planned to continue the construction of the Northern orbital road of Zhytomyr, the Northern orbital road of Rivne, the South-Western orbital road of Poltava, the Southern orbital road of Dnipro, the orbital road of Dunaevtsy (on the section between Chernivtsi and Khmelnytsky). Also, work will begin on the construction of the Northern orbital road of Lviv and the Northern orbital road of Ternopil.
In addition, the company plans to build an orbital road in Kobeliaky, Poltava region during the construction of one of the priority facilities in 2020 (highway N-31 Dnipro–Reshetylivka).
The construction of an orbital road in Berehove is planned, which, according to Ukravtodor, will significantly increase the attractiveness of Ukraine in the international road transport market.
In addition, this year Ukravtodor plans to prepare a feasibility study and design documentation for additional orbital roads: the South-East road bypassing Dubno, the North-Western road bypassing Khmelnytsky, the Northern road bypassing Bila Tserkov, the road bypassing Stryi and the Kremenchuk orbital road with a bridge across the Dnieper River.
The State Automobile Roads Agency (Ukravtodor) and China’s Poly Changda Engineering Co. Ltd have signed a memorandum of cooperation as part of the implementation of the first phase of construction of Big orbital roads around Kyiv connecting M-05 Kyiv-Odesa and M-06 Kyiv-Chop highways.
According to a posting on the website of the Infrastructure Ministry, during signing the document, Infrastructure Minister Vladyslav Krykliy said that the memorandum is an important stage in cooperation for the start of construction of the orbital road.
“Our goal is to ensure 40% growth of the country’s economy in five years, and for this we need to ensure large-scale construction throughout the country. Any infrastructure project gives a return with the greatest multiplier. Each dollar invested today in a year will give plus $2 for the economy. We are very pleased that Poly Changda Engineering shares our big investment plans, and especially in such important projects as the Great Orbital Road around Kyiv. In Ukraine, there was no experience of concession roads, so it is very important to start these projects with large reliable strategic partners,” the press service said, citing Krykliy.
At the same time, Krykliy expressed his expectations that both sides will be able to quickly complete all the required preparatory technical and economic calculations and begin construction next year.
The State Automobile Roads Agency of Ukraine (Ukravtodor) plans in 2019 to purchase nearly 200,000 tonnes of salt in 2019 for preparing the roads for winter, Ukravtodor acting head of Slawomir Nowak said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
“We are preparing [for winter], held first conferences over this issue. Purchase of salt volumes is under control, 41,000 tonnes have already been stored up. In general, we plan to purchase about 200,000 tonnes of salt this year. It would be enough to sustain winter facing no problems,” he said.
Novak noted that this week a meeting between Ukravtodor and the state-owned enterprise Artyomsol (Donetsk region) is to take place, during which it is planned to “settle a number of problematic issues.”
In addition, the head of the agency said that Ukravtodor has already prepared more than 2,700 of machinery items and devices for winter.
“For temporary parking of vehicles during bad weather we plan to use more than 800 sites right of way, near and at road service facilities. In addition, more than 7,000 linear meters of passive means of cleaning snow will be installed on public roads of national importance,” he said.
According to Nowak, by November 1, 2019 Ukravtodor plans to complete the full range of measures to prepare the road facilities for the autumn-winter period 2019-2020.
Artyomsol is the largest enterprise for production and sale of table salt (NaCl) in Central and Eastern Europe. Its production facilities are located in Soledar (Donetsk region).
The State Automobile Roads Agency of Ukraine, also known as Ukravtodor, plans to introduce the toll system for large trucks for using Ukrainian roads.
“It was my initiative to implement intelligent transport systems in Ukraine. In addition to Weight-in-Motion (WiM), this includes recording speeding and traffic analysis systems using cameras. The fourth part of the global intellectual transport system of Ukraine is tolling, that is, collecting payments from heavy vehicles for traveling on Ukrainian roads,” acting Head of Ukravtodor Slawomir Nowak said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
He believes that the introduction of the toll will be a serious legislative change for Ukraine, which will significantly improve the condition of roads in the country.
“We need to pass a law that will regulate this toll. We urgently need to introduce an additional source for the Road Fund. There is a European principle: trucks, especially those that earn on transportation, must pay more for traveling on roads,” the acting head of the agency said.
According to Nowak, the volumes of road destruction due to overloaded transport are huge.
“The problem with overloaded tracks in Ukraine is very, very big,” he said.
Acting Head of the State Agency of Automobile Roads of Ukraine (Ukravtodor) Slawomir Nowak has said hopefully Zaporizhia-Mariupol highway will be repaired by the end of 2019.
“We have a very ambitious goal: to complete Zaporizhia-Mariupol corridor this year. Large-scale funding was provided to complete these works, because this corridor is very important for the whole country. This is ‘the road of life’ for Zaporizhia and Donetsk regions, for Mariupol as well, thus we want to work so fast to be able to complete the construction,” Novak told the journalists during a visiting meeting.
He said the works are carried under constant supervision of the agency.
According to the Ukravtodor, the total length of the site is 209 km (41.3 in Donetsk region and 167.6 km in Zaporizhia region). Meanwhile, 54.1 km of roads have already been repaired (10.1 in Donetsk region and 44 km in Zaporizhia region).
Inter alia, the highway workers plan to repair 80.4 km of road in Zaporizhia region worth UAH 1.567 billion, and 31.2 km of road in Donetsk region worth UAH 840.6 million.
As reported, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has addressed a balance of funds of the Ukravtodor in an amount of UAH 1.920 billion and unappropriated expenditures of 2019 in an amount of UAH 94.142 million for the development of the principal highways.
The government passed a respective decision at its meeting on Wednesday.
According to an explanatory note to the document, over UAH 1.240 billion will be allocated for continuation of the permanent medium repairs of Boryspil-Dnipro-Zaporizhia-Mariupol highway enroute Zaporizhia-Mariupol, extra UAH 400 million will be spent for Dnipro-Mykolaiv highway (Dnipropetrovsk region) repairs in 2019.
