The prosecutor’s office demands through the court to eliminate defects on the M-4 highway
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The prosecutor’s office of the Rostov region filed a lawsuit demanding that the federal highway M-4 (Don) be brought into standard condition. The defendant is the state company Avtodor, which manages the highway. The many holes and potholes formed in the area from km 933 to km 1024, the statement of claim says, threaten the life and health of road users. Avtodor assured that all the defects indicated in the statement of the prosecutor’s office have already been eliminated. At the same time, the company does not deny that the specified section of the M-4 as a whole “does not satisfy the transport and operational characteristics,” and attributes this to the long-term lack of major repairs and the increased load on the road after the start of a special military operation.
The Leninsky District Court of Rostov-on-Don received a claim from the prosecutor’s office of the Rostov region against the state company Avtodor. The relevant information was published in the court file. The lawsuit was filed after an inspection by the supervisory authority of compliance with legislation in the field of road safety. “It has been established that the surface of the M-4 Don highway does not meet the established requirements and has numerous holes and potholes. This threatens the life and health of road users,” the prosecutor’s office explained. The statement lists a number of sections of the route within the administrative border of the Rostov region. All of them are part of the M-4 from the 933rd to the 1024th km. According to the department, since the beginning of last year, there have been 128 accidents on M-4 directly related to damage to the road surface.
As part of the statement of claim, the court may oblige Avtodor to bring the road surface in the areas specified in the claim into compliance with the standards, the prosecutor’s office clarifies; there is no talk of punishing the company for inaction. “The work is carried out by contractors; they are punished separately for violations of technology and the use of low-quality materials. Thus, since the beginning of last year, six representations have been made to contracting organizations, and the issue of bringing them to administrative responsibility under Part 1 of Art. 12.34 Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation,” the supervisory authority clarified. Under this article, for failure to comply with road safety requirements during the construction, reconstruction, repair and maintenance of roads, officials face a fine of up to 30 thousand rubles, legal entities – up to 300 thousand rubles.
The Avtodor press service assured Kommersant that all the defects referred to in the prosecutor’s claim have already been eliminated. “On average, about 5 thousand square meters are removed per day. m defects. In total, road surface defects have already been eliminated on an area of more than 67 thousand square meters. m. The work is carried out around the clock, more than 140 units of equipment are involved,” the company reported.
Avtodor emphasized that the M-4 Don was transferred to the trust management of the state company only in 2010: on the problem section – from the 933rd to the 1024th km in the Rostov region – capital work “has not yet had time to arrive.” According to the company, the last time reconstruction was carried out here was between 1991 and 2008. “The existing design of the road pavement in this section does not satisfy the transport and operational characteristics; for example, for more than 60% of the length of the M-4 section, its elastic modulus is significantly lower than the standard one. The design loads for which the section was calculated do not meet the current (actual) operating conditions: the section is designed for standard axle loads of 6 tons and 10 tons, while according to current requirements the standard axle load for roads with permanent pavements should be 11.5 tons “, said Avtodor. In recent years, the load on the highway has increased significantly, explained representatives of the state-owned company. In particular, a significant increase in the intensity of traffic flow occurred due to the closure of airports in southern Russia after the start of the military operation on the territory of Ukraine. “The increase in cargo flow on the site is associated with the redistribution of the logistics chain of cargo transportation and the movement of special equipment, as well as the implementation of intensive cargo transportation, including excess cargo. In total, in 2022, on the section from 933 to 1024 km of M-4 Don in the Rostov region, more than 4.8 million truck passages were recorded, in 2023 – almost 6 million truck passages. In total, last year more than 18.7 million cars drove along this section of the M-4 in the Rostov region,” Avtodor reported.
The company believes that defects on the road are formed due to its constant operation in overload mode, the lack of load-bearing capacity of the road pavement and repeated temperature transitions through 0°C in winter. The company plans to complete all emergency restoration work on the section from 933 to 1024 km of the M-4 Don highway in the Rostov region in March of this year.
Road workers reported to the public
The management of Rosavtodor presented a report on the work done in 2023 to the Public Chamber. The volume of financing amounted to 921 billion rubles, after construction and reconstruction, 233.6 km of roads were put into operation, after major repairs and repairs – 3.17 thousand km of roads. 226 km of highways were expanded from two to four lanes.
At the end of the year, 72.6% of federal roads (44.4 thousand km) are in standard condition. At the end of 2021, the figure was 76.1%, at the end of 2022 – 72.7%, noted Igor Dubrovsky, a member of the public council of Rosavtodor. Some federal roads today are underfunded in terms of maintenance, explained the head of Rosavtodor, Roman Novikov (only 60% of the financial standards prescribed by government decree are allocated): “We are already working to arrange funding in full, but this is how the budget is woven today.”
This trend, according to Roman Novikov, is also associated with the growth of the federal network, which in recent years has included regional highways that require repairs. Presidential aide Igor Levitin drew attention to this problem in November 2023, proposing to discuss this issue “separately in the government.” He reminded that in 2027, 85% of the roads included in the core network must be brought into standard condition—that’s 136 thousand km of routes, including federal and large regional facilities.
In order to maintain roads in standard condition, Roman Novikov said, Rosavtodor replaces some of the measures with less capital-intensive ones: for example, instead of major repairs, it does ordinary repairs, in some areas it is limited only to replacing the surface.
The share of “federal cars” that will be brought to the standard state, according to materials from Rosavtodor, may decrease to 72.5% by the end of 2024, but Mr. Novikov expects that the figure will still grow. After reconstruction and construction, Rosavtodor plans to introduce 385.3 km of roads, and after major repairs and repairs – 3.76 thousand km.
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