The State Duma wants to unite 9% of the Russian road network into a “core road network”
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The State Duma intends to unite 136,000 km of the most important federal and regional roads for the economy (9% of the entire road network) into a “backbone road network.” This term appears in the legislation for the first time – on Wednesday, the parliament will adopt the relevant amendments. The innovations will make it possible to lay down budget expenditures for the repair and maintenance of the highways included in the backbone network according to the standards that are currently valid only for the “federal” ones, experts explain.
The State Duma on Tuesday adopted in the second reading changes to the charter of road transport, developed by the Ministry of Transport along with changes to the Code of Administrative Offenses (they are planned to be considered separately). Both bills told “b” earlier, they give the subjects of the federation the right to set fines for free travel on regional toll roads, such as the Moscow High-Speed Diameter, the bridge over the Kama in Udmurtia, etc. Now, on all toll roads, including the federal Central Ring Road, M-11, M-12, there is a single amount of fines – 1.5 thousand rubles. for passenger cars, the fees from which go to the federal budget. The Ministry of Transport, which prepared the amendments, believes that it is more fair to direct part of the penalty money from regional projects to local budgets. The subjects of the Russian Federation will fix the amount of sanctions in their laws, but not higher than the current “federal” bar in the amount of 1.5 thousand rubles, the Ministry of Transport said.
New amendments have been made to the second reading of the bill. The Transport Committee proposed to amend the road law on a topic not directly related to the original topic.
For the first time, the term “backbone road network” will be enshrined in legislation — “a set of highways that ensures the uninterrupted movement of vehicles, transport connectivity of the territory of the Russian Federation, and the unity of its economic space.”
This term was introduced into public circulation by officials back in 2021. Rosavtodor united 136,000 km of federal and regional roads into a backbone network, including planned sections that play the most important role for the development of the country’s economy – this is 9% of the length of all roads in Russia. In June 2022, Vladimir Putin instructed to bring 85% of the backbone network back to normal within five years. The objects included in it were subsequently included in the government plan for road activities until 2027 with funding in the amount of 13 trillion rubles. However, the term itself has not been legally deciphered anywhere.
The core network, according to the adopted amendments, will include:
- all “feds”;
- regional routes connecting Moscow with the capitals of other subjects;
- regional capitals among themselves;
- capitals of regions with cities with a population of more than 100 thousand people;
- having a traffic intensity of more than 10 thousand cars per day;
- providing access to checkpoints across the state border;
- other roads that meet the criteria to be determined by the government of the Russian Federation.
Inter-municipal roads can also enter it, follows from the amendments.
The amendments, suggests Mikhail Blinkin, scientific director of the Institute of Transport Economics at the Higher School of Economics, provide a legal basis for the White House to provide funding for all the roads of the backbone network. The current government decree No. 658 regulates the standards for financial costs for the overhaul, repair and maintenance of roads, taking into account their category, region and inflation rate, but only applies to federal roads. A source familiar with the situation confirmed the version of Mikhail Blinkin: subsequently, uniform rules for the level of maintenance will be presented to all the roads of the core network, this will be supported by appropriate funding.
“Changes, of course, will also have an impact on general approaches to financing road works,” the Rosavtodor said. “We are talking about prioritizing measures to bring the most popular highways of the backbone network into a standard transport and operational condition.” “If the financing rules apply to the entire backbone network, then this is a big step forward,” says Mikhail Blinkin. “However, the likelihood that the Ministry of Finance will agree to include these expenses in the budget is now extremely low, since they save on everything.”
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