The belated spring came to reveal a huge number of potholes on the city’s roads. A KW article by Vlad Rudenko  looks into the situation.

In many parts of the country the potholes are as deep as 15-20 centimeters and in some place they are even 50 cm. The worst situation is on the busiest roads of the nation’s capital, specifically the Beltway and Peremohy, Palladin, Moskovskiy and Nauky avenues. Motorists on these roads are forced to reduce the traveling speed to the maximum, thus forming traffic jams that are often a few kilometers long.

It became clear at the start of this year that spring will bring serious problems on the roads of Kyiv. At the end of January motorists sounded the alarm. However, the municipal authorities to argued that the problems arose mostly due to inclement weather condition and the wear-and-tear of the streets. In other words, without major repairs the conditions of the roads will only get worse until real spring finally arrives.

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“Last year only 6.6% of the required amount of money was allocated for the repair of existing roads and building new ones in Kyiv. By standards Kyivavtodor every year should service 1.35 mn square meters of road surfaces. For this UAH 272 mn is required. The situation with financing of major repairs and construction of new roads is even more deplorable. This year only 2.3% of the necessary funding was allocated (in 2012 this figure was 15.9%), though by standard repairs of 1.55 sq. km of major roads should be done every year. This requires UAH 1.1 bn,” said Deputy Head of the Kyiv City Administration Anatoliy Holubchenko.

About how the city and the motorists handle the situation, read the article in the No 15 of Kyiv Weekly.