Committee for Architecture and Construction: planned volumes of current road repairs will be overfulfilled in 2022
Under these conditions, the primary task for road management enterprises is to improve the transport and operational condition of local roads, ensure transport links between district centers, access roads from district centers to agro-towns where rural councils of deputies are located, and further to the central estates of agricultural organizations, as well as from agro-towns to other settlements.
FINANCES – MORE ABUNDANT
As reported by the Committee for Architecture and Construction of the Regional Executive Committee, funding for the measures of the State Program "Roads of Belarus" for 2021-2025 has significantly increased this year. Thus, 25.6 million rubles will be allocated from the regional budget, which is 35.4% more than in 2021. In addition, in March, a decision was made to increase the profit tax rate by two percentage points, with additional budget revenues of 11 million rubles also going towards the repair of local roads and reconstruction of bridges. Another source is an intergovernmental transfer of 27.4 million rubles from the republican budget. The total funding is estimated at 81.6 million rubles, which is 12.2% more than the amount planned for 2022.
As a result, over 8 months, current repairs of local roads with a length of about 161 km have been carried out, or 62.3% of the annual plan. Repair work on the roads of the Orsha district is already being carried out with the task overfulfilled. In general, the financial support of the state program in 2022 allows forecasting the achievement of the target indicators for the year laid down in it, specialists noted. In particular, the growth rate of current repairs will be 106.2%, which is 274 km instead of 258 km.
In addition, road workers are scheduled to reconstruct two bridge structures with a total length of 27 linear meters this year. These are bridges over the Auta River in the Miory District (Zautye – Klimyaty highway, scheduled for early completion in autumn) and over a stream on the Polotsk – Ushachi highway, which will be commissioned in the 4th quarter. Preparatory work will begin simultaneously on three more sites in the Tolochin (over the Sokolyanka River on the Orsha – Kokhanovo – Oboltsy road), Shumilino (on the approach to the village of Sosnino), and Chashniki (over the Essa River on the Lepel – Krasnoluki – Kholopenichi road) districts. The plans for inspections this year include 6 bridge structures (18 facilities were inspected in 2021). By the way, under the state program for the five-year period, it is planned to reconstruct a total of 8 bridge structures with a total length of over 140 linear meters (6 on republican roads, 2 on local roads).
An important aspect of maintaining transport and operational indicators is the maintenance of local roads. For 8 months, 19.1 million rubles have been allocated for these purposes, which is 74.6% of the planned annual appropriations. Repair profiling of 20.6 thousand km of gravel and dirt roads has been completed, 14.5 thousand km of shoulders have been mowed, and 93.3 thousand sq. m of potholes have been eliminated. Road workers, in close cooperation with district and rural executive committees, councils of deputies, and housing and communal services, carried out measures to combat Sosnowsky hogweed, which has been cleared from an area of 100.2 hectares against a plan of 75 hectares.
RISING PRICES
The significant material intensity of road construction has a considerable impact on the economy of enterprises and the overall volume of road works. The share of material resources in the cost of some types of work exceeds 80%. The cost of bitumen, crushed stone, and diesel fuel is quite high and constantly increasing, specialists note. For example, from December 2020 to August 2022, the price of bitumen increased by almost 2.5 times, diesel fuel by approximately 40%, and dolomite crushed stone by 22.7%. Moreover, materials are supplied on a full prepayment basis. Undoubtedly, these factors lead to an increase in the cost of work, and, as a consequence, their volume decreases.
Against the backdrop of significant investment support for work in 2022, the financial pitfalls of previous years cannot be forgotten. The length of local roads with overdue inter-repair periods is over 14 thousand km, or 93.7% of their total length. Therefore, the implementation of the state program will improve the qualitative characteristics of only individual roads, but to solve the problem of the condition of highways as a whole, significantly larger financial resources are required: according to experts, only to fulfill the planned targets for 2021-2023 for current road repairs and bridge reconstruction, 24.2 million rubles are needed.
In 2022, it is planned to repair 389 km of republican and local roads in the Vitebsk region, as well as to commission 8 bridge structures after reconstruction and major repairs.