Road workers were pointed out holes and potholes

On Russian roads and streets, it is still a typical situation when asphalt, freshly laid as part of scheduled repairs, is opened up and laid again to repair communications. Experts from the Popular Front (PF) analyzed violations during the implementation of the national project “Safe Quality Roads.” Activists point to the use of low-quality tiles and curbstones, which fall apart two months after installation, as well as design errors that led to blocked driveways to residential buildings. The NF plans to include information about this in the final report to the president on the implementation of national projects. Rosavtodor also records citizen complaints about violations, the agency says, but regional authorities are responsible for eliminating defects.

As part of the national project “Safe Quality Roads” (SQR), we would like to remind you that since 2019, new regional roads have been repaired and built. 196 billion rubles have been allocated for these purposes in 2023. federal funds and 353 billion rubles. from the budgets of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation. By the end of 2024, 50% of the regional network outside populated areas should be repaired (in fact, it is now 50.1%) and 85% of roads in urban agglomerations (now more than 80%).

Experts from regional branches of the Popular Front (PF) examined 1.12 thousand sites during monitoring of sites, the organization told Kommersant. The collected data is planned to be included in a report that the NF will send to the head of state in December. “The government allocates sufficient resources, but local control needs to be strengthened and unnecessary waste associated with lack of planning and control must be avoided,” the NF says.

As a typical example, experts cite the situation in Chita, where in the summer of 2022 it was repaired for 56.1 million rubles. Kokhansky Street, but a year later, in the summer of 2023, the road was opened by power engineers for the construction of a hospital. “Both repairs are planned, but are absolutely illogical in sequence; many such examples have been identified,” Olga Pozdnyakova, head of the Popular Front. Analytics department, explained to Kommersant. “Desynchronization of work leads to the fact that the quality of the restored road can be significantly inferior to the original.”

It is also necessary to strengthen control over the quality of materials used for road work, they say in the NF.

This conclusion is illustrated by the situation in Astrakhan, where in April 2023 the renovation of the site on Babaevsky Street began for 82.4 million rubles. In September, during monitoring, Popular Front activists found out that the curb stone laid during repairs could not withstand two months of use and began to crumble. In some places the curb has collapsed, and the paving slabs have fallen to a depth of 5 cm. Similar picture in Biysk (Altai Territory): there, a section of Skladsky Lane was repaired in 2021, and by September 2023, failures and subsidence of asphalt had already been identified.

Incident in Irkutsk, where in 2022 for 160 million rubles. repaired Shevtsova Street, indicates errors in design, activists continue: “Because of this, melt water washed away the pedestrian paths and neighboring houses.” In September 2023, NF activists, while checking the same street, found asphalt crumbling in their hands, holes, and potholes. During the construction of the road along Novaya Street in the village of Zarechensky (Oryol region) in the spring of 2023, road workers installed a curb that blocked the entrances to private houses. The NF says that this happened due to the lack of a road improvement project.

“Repairs are often carried out in violation of asphalt laying technology; as a result, water after rain and snow accumulates in the middle of the roadway,” adds NF expert Katerina Solovyova. “Another common problem is poor information for drivers about the work being carried out: there are not enough warning signs (or their not visible), as a result, collisions occur with workers, fences and equipment.”

The expert also mentions the problem of storm drains and wells (remaining from Soviet times), characteristic of the historical centers of large cities.

“These facilities require serious deep repairs, and not surface laying of asphalt,” explains Ms. Solovyova. “The asphalt still “floats away” in a year or two due to subsidence.”

Mikhail Blinkin, scientific director of the Institute of Transport Economics at the Higher School of Economics, called the violations that the NF is talking about “regular,” but clarified that in recent years they have become fewer. He considers a typical example to be a lack of coordination when, for example, work within the framework of the BCD and activities to relay communications occur at odds. “This is not even at the regional level, but at the city or municipal level; it is difficult to track this at the federal level,” says Mr. Blinkin. There are also cases of “outright hackwork,” he adds, when the contractor uses cheap building materials, for example, using limestone instead of crushed granite rocks in the subgrade (the bottom layer of the road). “When such an object is handed over, everything looks good, but after the first winter, ruts appear on such roads,” explains the expert.

No federal money was allocated for the implementation of the objects that the NF inspected, so Rosavtodor did not inspect them, the Federal Road Agency (FDA) explained to Kommersant.

The regions are responsible for control: if defects are identified, contractors are obliged to eliminate them at their own expense. “A distinctive feature of the national project is its openness to the population,” the department noted. “In order to ensure additional control over the quality of work, a system for recording public opinion has been created. Activists can not only monitor the progress of work, but also express their wishes and comments using various communication channels, including the national project website, social networks, and the “Map of Dead Roads” project.” Since 2019, according to the FDA, more than 33 thousand requests have been received from residents, all of them were sent to regional offices for consideration and “taking action.” Roads that are repaired and built using federal money are checked by Rosavtodor, including through instrumental means.

Ivan Buranov