Nearly 30% of national roads in Bulgaria are due for major repairs

Nearly 30% of the national roads in Bulgaria are due for major repairs, Andrei Tsekov, Minister of Regional Development and Public Works, told BNT morning prog.amme on October 24.

"28% of the republican roads in Bulgaria are in need of major repairs, this means about 5,500 kilometers. These roads have been built since the 1970s. There are road sections that have not been overhauled since they were built. This is an extremely serious problem, because assuming that we have to carry out immediate major repairs on these 5,500 km of roads in the next year, we need to spend around BGN 10-15 billion. Obviously, this is not within the budget's means, as the normal amount allocated from the budget for road maintenance is about BGN 1 billion, plus an additional BGN 2 billion for major repairs and major construction," said Andrei Tsekov.

"We are facing an objective reality. Bulgarian roads have been built over the past 50 years, in the last half century, there was massive construction of the road network. In the last 30 years, the level of maintenance and restoration of the operational qualities of the road network has been relatively low. Due to the financial capacity of the state," the minister added.

Minister Tsekov explained the way in which inspections of the quality of road construction are carried out and why there are deviations in over 50% of the inspected motorways and expressways.

"All the tests we did were carried out by the Institute of Roads and Bridges, which is a structure within the Road Infrastructure Agency, a specialised and accredited unit to carry out checks on the quality of the road construction works carried out, as well as the quality of the materials. The inspections are carried out by two methods. One is related to the measurement of longitudinal flatness, i.e. how well the roadway meets the flatness requirements, there are established standards. And the second is the thickness of the asphalt layers. In one case the surveys are carried out with a laser profilograph, which is a machine that measures flatness. The second is by boring cores, and the methodology by which they are performed is one core for every 2,000 square metres," Tsekov noted.

The Minister said that the guiding criterion for road inspection was the warranty periods and their expiration.

"The warranty periods for motorways are 7 years, for first and second class roads - 5 years, for third class - 4 years. There were terms that expire in November. We invited contractors to remove the defects within a reasonable time," Tsekov said.