The State Highway Agency of Ukraine (“Ukravtodor”) is preparing for winter by diversifying the supply of technical salt.
“We started preparing for winter in advance. To date, the remaining anti-icing materials from last year are 25,000 tons of technical salt and 159,000 tons of friction materials. We will prepare 283,000 tons of friction materials and 89,000 tons at the beginning of the deterioration of weather conditions . tons of technical salt (50% of the normative need for the entire autumn-winter period). We are preparing, we have the equipment, by the way, this season we plan to attract 4,885 units of equipment and mechanisms,” said Andriy Ivko, the first deputy head of Ukravtodor, in an interview of the “Interfax-Ukraine” agency.
He noted that in connection with the stoppage of work of State Enterprise “Artemsil” due to hostilities in the region and its termination of the supply of technical salt in “Ukravtodor” they were able to find alternative suppliers of this resource.
“We monitored other deposits and production in our country and found an alternative in the west: the Stebnytske deposit of potassium salts in the Lviv region and the Bushtyn deposit in the Zakarpattia region, as well as the bischophyte deposits in the Poltava region. We have already conducted technical tests of the materials – the available raw materials are not inferior in quality the one we purchased earlier, and sometimes it is even better in terms of material meltability,” Ivko noted.
According to him, in addition to the technical characteristics, “Ukravtodor” also took into account the economic component of such supplies.
“We are also working with our European partners, we are talking about ensuring the possibility of purchasing technical salt from Europe. Therefore, on November 1, 2022, we will be 100% ready for winter,” he said.
According to the first deputy chairman of “Ukravtodor”, there are no questions regarding the procurement of fuel either.
In addition, Ivko reminded that the Operational Headquarters for the Elimination of the Consequences of Emergency Situations works at the base of “Ukravtodor”, which includes representatives of the State Emergency Service, the National Police, the State Transport Security Service, JSC “Automobile Roads of Ukraine”, Kyiv military administration and city state administrations, the All-Ukrainian Association of Motor Carriers and the Association of International Carriers of Ukraine.