Expensive Roads

The roads of Azerbaijan for many years are one of the biggest problems of the country, and the well-known proverb about "two troubles in Russia - fools and roads" can be reliably attributed to our country.

Despite the fact that the funds for the construction of new and repair of old roads stand out generously, their condition often makes you want something better. Only in the first months of this year, by order of the President of the country Ilham Aliyev, AZN 150 million was allocated from the state budget for the construction of a new highway to the border with Russia, 2 million roads for the construction of the Gilyazi-Khizi-Fundygan road and roads in the Agdam district, and AZN 700,000 for points of the Salyan region. The construction of the highway Charhy - Mamedkhanli was allocated 10.1 million manat. Almost equal to this amount is allocated for road repairs. Last year, investments in the development and maintenance of road infrastructure amounted to 1 billion 335.6 million manat. This is 18.4% more than in 2016. Similar funds are spent in the country except for major international events and military expenditures.

According to experts, the construction of a kilometer of a new road in the country costs the state budget about $ 18 million. For comparison, the cost of laying 1 km of the road in the US, ranking 13 in the rating, is $ 5.9 million. It would seem that with similar spending, the result should be corresponding. In the ranking of countries on the quality of roads for 2016-2017 compiled by the World Economic Forum Azerbaijan ranks 44th among 136 countries. This is a rather high indicator compared to the neighbors, however, considering the amount of expenses for the road infrastructure, the place in the rating could be much higher, and potholes that grow into deep pits on most Baku country roads indicate a possible error in the rating. What the asphalt surface turns into after snow and rain is hard to call expensive.

New roads quickly sink, and many attribute this to the quality of asphalt concrete, to be more precise, to the absence of it. According to domestic experts, a sufficient amount of cement is not added to the concrete, asphalt is also recognized as a victim of corruption. Thus, asphalt-concrete money flows into someone's pocket in a big stream, and the roads remain ownerless. In the Netherlands, whose roads are one of the best in the world, they began to abandon expensive asphalt concrete, replacing it with a recycled material, mostly plastic. This reduced costs and time spent on construction and increased the longevity of roads. However, in Azerbaijan it is still far away, and the life of expensive roads is very short-lived, despite the 20-30-year period of exploitation specified in the documents. Do the places of the Azerbaijani roads in the rating correspond to their spending on them?

According to the lawyer, expert on road traffic issues Ershad Huseynov, said the state of roads in the country is not quite satisfactory, which can be seen from several indicators: "The roads can be divided into two types: roads of settlements, that is streets and avenues and roads outside them - republican and local significance. The condition of the main roads and the prospectuses of the capital are relatively good. This includes Nobel Prospect, Ziya Bunyatov, Tbilisi Avenue, Samed Vurgun Street, and Rashid Behbudov Street. However, even here, in bad weather conditions, large puddles are formed. The state of little used streets of secondary importance, lanes terrible even in the capital. On these roads you can see everything: pits, cracks, and even illegal seizure of a part of the road. In general, the entire road infrastructure should be at the highest level, the condition of all roads without exception should be maintained steadily, and they should be repaired in a timely manner. In all the developed world standards of road deficiencies are accepted. For example, there are standards for the size of potholes, cracks, the excess of which is immediately eliminated, because there may be a risk of accidents. We do not have such standards yet. "

The expert stressed that the condition of the roads outside of Baku is appalling: "According to unofficial information, over 200 thousand people live in the city of Khirdalan, but there are no normal streets there, they are all in cracks and potholes, there are no stripes. The roads in the Baku settlements are approximately in the same condition. Except for one or two, the roads in the towns are all in cracks and potholes, excavated, there are no normal sidewalks. As for roads of national importance, most of them have improved recently, but there are serious shortcomings on the Baku-Guba-Russian border road and in the opposite direction. The same can be said about the road Alat-Astara. However, for the sake of objectivity, it should be noted that after the transformation of Azeravtoyol into the Azerbaijan State Agency of Highways and the change of leadership, there have been positive changes in the issue of arranging roads, they are gradually trying to tidy up. Moreover, the repair of roads should not only deal with the state agency, local executive bodies should also take part in this. However, in most cases, they shy away from it. "

Expert-economist Neymat Aliyev believes that in recent years, the largest amount of public finance has been allocated to the transport sector: "However, we often encounter the fact that the road whose operational time in investment projects is specified in 25-30 years, in 3 years comes in unfitness. This means that there is a fact of corruption. This is manifested in the fact that the money allocated for construction is not spent on purpose, and the road is built poorly, so the period of its operation is reduced at times. Therefore, in this area it is necessary not to allocate more and more money to improve the situation, but to ensure serious state financial control over spending allocated funds. There is no such control therefore Azerbaijan occupies one of the highest positions in the ranking of countries in terms of corruption level/ --0----