Photo: facebook.com/kievavtodor
In Kyiv, roads are disappearing along with the snow. Temperature fluctuations have caused dozens of potholes on the road surface not only in the outskirts but also in the city center, despite the billions the city authorities spend annually on pothole repairs and major repairs. Billions, judging by publicly available tenders. The situation is similar in other Ukrainian cities. Who is to blame, and what should be done? "Vesti" They were looking for where the travel money was going.
"THESE ARE NOT PITS, BUT CRATERS"
Although Kyiv's roads appear to have improved at first glance, the potholes left by this winter have revealed what they wanted to hide. It's like money hidden in a pocket, not in the asphalt. After all, if all the necessary procedures had been followed, it's unlikely that roads repaired several years ago would have fallen apart. Drivers say the problem exists in almost every neighborhood.
"I live in the suburbs, but I commute into the city every day. As soon as I cross Sofiivska Borshahivka, which is riddled with potholes, I have to navigate the obstacles on the Ring Road and Borshahivka, where major roads were recently under repair. And Litvinenko-Volgemut Street is like the aftermath of a nuclear war. It was difficult to drive there even in the fall, but now it's only passable in an SUV," driver Olga Vysotskaya tells Vesti.
The situation is no better in Pozniaky, where the population density is very high and there are a lot of cars. And most importantly, it's where trucks drive. "We have the same thing every year. Potholes on Grigorenko Avenue, as well as on Knyazhyi Zaton, and on Sribnokilska Street. Plus, they do repairs on the Southern Bridge and Bazhan Avenue every year, and new potholes appear regularly," adds driver Elena Makarenko.
Taxi driver Sergei Yemelyanov insists that potholes are present in all districts, including the city center. "It's more or less OK to drive on the main roads—Pobedy Avenue, Teligi Street, and Chornovola Street. But there's not a single secondary road that's free of problems. The condition of some main roads, like Avtozavodskaya and Bogatyrskaya, is also appalling. They're not potholes, they're craters!" Sergei complains.
Furthermore, a couple of weeks ago, the overpass near the Nyvky metro station, which, according to the Kyiv City State Administration, cost UAH 200 million to repair, developed five-meter-long cracks. This is the second emergency situation since the roadworks. A similar story occurred with the overpass in Svyatoshino, whose repair warranty has not yet expired.
Patrol police confirmed to Vesti that there are potholes all over the city. "Even the government quarter has large holes: this winter, for example, there were asphalt failures on the Shelkovichnaya-Institutskaya and Grushevsky-Shelkovichnaya sections. The Paton Bridge is in critical condition," the police said.
TECHNOLOGY VIOLATIONS AND KICKBACKS
According to the Kyiv City State Administration, medium-term repairs were carried out on 83 roads and bridges in 2020. Major repairs to the Borshahivskyi Bridge are nearing completion, and two new overpasses have been opened at the intersection of Bohatyrska Street and Obolonskyi Avenue, as well as Bohatyrska Street and Stepana Bandera Avenue.
Incidentally, the Borshahivskyi Bridge cost UAH 323 million. According to the 2020 budget, total spending on transportation and road infrastructure amounted to UAH 10 billion, of which approximately UAH 5 billion was allocated for the construction, repair, and maintenance of roads in the capital.
Experts interviewed by Vesti acknowledge that this money is insufficient for high-quality road repairs and maintenance. However, they believe that, over the years, when budgets have allocated between 2 and 10 billion rubles for roads, Kyiv residents could have had better infrastructure if not for theft and lack of oversight over repairs.
"Any violation of pothole patching technology leads to their destruction. How is road surface repair performed? First, the pothole is treated, blowing out all debris and dirt, and sanding if necessary. Then layers of sand, crushed stone, a rough asphalt layer, and a top layer—the show layer, so to speak. If something isn't laid at each level, water seeping in expands the layers, compromising the integrity of the surface, resulting in a pothole. But we must be honest—no one monitors the laying of the layers handled by district road maintenance departments (Kyivavtodor road maintenance departments) at every stage. No one takes samples of these layers. Furthermore, the effect of salt reagents on the tar is not taken into account," a source at one of Kyiv's road maintenance departments told Vesti.
Roman Khmil, head of the My Road NGO and former head of the Ministry of Infrastructure's Department of Strategic Road Development, confirms that there is no oversight of the quality of work in Ukraine.
"Such oversight only exists on roads built with international financing. For example, when the Kyiv-Odesa or Kyiv-Chop highways were repaired, or when the repairs were financed by the World Bank or the EBRD. There's mandatory quality control by Western companies. Their representatives are on the road every day during construction, taking samples of each layer, checking the asphalt temperature, and checking whether the aggregate has been washed. As a result, the road is of high quality. The government still hasn't introduced this independent oversight even on national roads, let alone Kyiv's roads," Khmil told Vesti.
According to him, even foreign companies in Kyiv manage to slack off. "For example, the Turkish company Onur Taahhut Tasimacilik Insaat Ticaret Ve Sanayi AS was repairing some roads in the capital. But there was no quality control. I personally witnessed this when they were laying asphalt on Peremohy Avenue and Tarasa Shevchenko Boulevard. It was raining heavily, but the work continued, which is unacceptable. They simply didn't want to pay the workers' wages during the downtime. Plus, the asphalt, cooled by the rain and wet, can already be dumped or recycled, since it can't be reheated. This incurs significant additional costs and losses. This is the main reason why contractors slack off," Khmil told Vesti.
According to him, a road after major repairs should last 9-15 years. But here, it falls apart after 3-5 years.
Ilya Sahaidak, former head of the Department of Transport and former deputy head of the Kyiv City State Administration for transport infrastructure, says corruption is also at play. "Corruption is rampant due to the city government's sense of impunity. Kyivavtodor controls itself (the former head of Kyivavtodor is now the deputy head of the Kyiv City State Administration for transport infrastructure – Ed.), so it can afford whatever it wants. There are road maintenance departments in the districts, but they also report to Kyivavtodor. And the situation there is similar," Sahaidak told Vesti.
Moreover, one expert emphasizes that another problem is that city authorities, and the Department of Transportation in particular, are focused on major repairs rather than pothole repairs. "Previously, more funds were allocated to patches, but now the authorities have a new focus—major repairs. And it's clear why: there are huge financial flows there, where you can make a 'big buck,' which you can't do with routine repairs," a government source tells us.
The gold mine of checkpoints
Another road problem is trucks driving two to three times over the legal weight limit, as well as out-of-town vehicles. "Suburban traffic accounts for an estimated 30% of all Kyiv traffic, and that's mostly trucks. Frankly, trucks are weighed very rarely, and not at all entrances to Kyiv. As a result, Zabolotnoho Street, Naberezhne Highway, Pivdennyi Bridge, Bazhan Avenue, Bratislavskaya Street, Shukhevycha Avenue, and Minsky Avenue are beyond repair," a source in the Ministry of Infrastructure tells us.
Roman Khmil confirms the problem: "Yes, if the load is twice the norm, the road crumbles in a single pass. And here, it can be three times the norm. And there are no weigh stations in Kyiv. There are two stations—on the Odesa and Zhytomyr highways—that, if necessary, turn a blind eye and work every other day. They stop working at 21:00 PM, and trucks can pass through without any problems. Or they let trucks through for a 200 hryvnia bribe."
He insists that overloading is the reason contractors are unwilling to repair substandard roads at their own expense. "This applies to both international and domestic companies, and even small road haulers. Now the authorities are demanding that contractors provide road repairs with warranty coverage. After all, they're coming in and saying: 'It's the trucks' fault.' And from a legal standpoint, it's the perfect excuse," says Roman Khmil.
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