Regional routes were shown the right way – Newspaper Kommersant No. 182 (7383) of 03.10.2022

It will become more difficult for the subjects of the federation to transfer the destroyed roads to Rosavtodor to put them in order. On behalf of the head of state, the Ministry of Transport has prepared a bill that introduces the criteria for such a procedure for the first time. The Ministry of Finance insisted on the introduction of restrictions in order to reduce the burden on the federal budget. Experts called the initiative reasonable, but representatives of regional authorities oppose it.

The Ministry of Transport posted on regulation.gov.ru a draft amendment to the law on highways, which for the first time introduces criteria for transferring roads from regional to federal status. This practice has existed for many years: routes that are not able to support the regions are usually transferred to the Federal Road Transport Agency, which has more financial opportunities. In 2018, the government’s transport commission approved a ownership change plan through 2029, including 108 highways, which the authorities have been working on until recently.

In June 2022, speaking at a meeting on the development of roads with the participation of the head of state, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov complained that the process of transferring roads had become, in fact, uncontrolled. Of the 50,000 km of federal highways, he said, about 10,000 km “has grown over the past five years” at the expense of the regions. He called for the introduction of criteria for changing the status and returning part of the repaired roads back to the authorities of the regions, freeing up part of the federal money. Vladimir Putin agreed with Mr. Siluanov, instructing the government to develop “specific” criteria by October 15. The ownership change process is now suspended.

It follows from the bill presented that only suburban roads will be transferred to Rosavtodor, which are not duplicates of existing federal highways. It must be a route not lower than the third category (with the exception of the regions of the Far North and the Far East). According to the official classification, we recall that there are five categories of roads. The fourth and fifth categories are one-two-lane roads without a separator, with one-level intersections, a lane width of less than 3.25 m, a shoulder width of less than 2 m.

The press service of the Ministry of Finance told Kommersant that they would consider the bill as soon as it enters the department.

Mikhail Blinkin, scientific director of the Institute of Transport Economics at the Higher School of Economics, considers the proposed criteria “reasonable”. “Earlier, the road to federal ownership was sometimes transferred even contrary to the opinion of Rosavtodor, because some governor simply came and agreed using his lobbying capabilities,” he said. The change in the status of the road is not of fundamental importance, he says, the regions receive stable funding for repairs and reconstruction under the Safe High-Quality Roads national project. It should be noted that in June 2022, the government approved a five-year plan for road activities, according to which the regions will have to spend 7.2 trillion rubles on the repair, reconstruction and construction of new roads. until 2027.

Many subjects used to try to give Rosavtodor problematic routes in settlements in order to make not only pavement for federal money, but also sidewalks, lighting, water and gas pipelines, Alexander Vasiliev, the creator of the Killed Roads movement, told Kommersant. “Rosavtodor had to deal with all this, which is illogical, especially when it comes to a small local road and street,” he says. At the same time, Mr. Vasiliev fears that funding for the road sector will soon be cut, including through the Federal Road Agency: with the adoption of the new law, the agency will have formal grounds to refuse subjects.

The governor of the Kursk region, ex-head of Rosavtodor Roman Starovoit does not support the bill. The change of ownership, he explained to Kommersant, allows “to free up additional money that goes to the construction of new roads, to take municipal highways into regional ownership.” “It is often difficult to transfer roads to the second or third category, which will be required under the new law, because the adjacent territories belong to individuals or organizations,” he said. “In addition, most of these roads pass through settlements. To exclude the land plots on which the routes are located from the boundaries of settlements, additional budget expenditures will be required. If the regions are given all the roads that do not meet the new criteria, the subjects will not have the financial ability to maintain and repair them in a timely manner.”

Ivan Buranov