He pointed out that this year’s capital investments, including the contribution of the European Union (EU), are approximately 170 million euros, while funding for daily maintenance works is 56.7 million euros.
Akimov mentioned that the amount of funding for capital investments is unlikely to increase significantly in the near future. On the other hand, in case of reduction of capital investments, it is important to ensure sufficient funding for daily maintenance works, because then these works are even more important.
“The fact is that the national road network is experiencing an insufficient amount of funding, and in the coming years we cannot expect 160 million euros for daily maintenance work and 460 million euros for capital investments,” Akimovs added.
Consequently, he said, LVCs must become more efficient through internal self-control and external control, as well as through new technology and innovation.
Akimovs informed that currently there are sections of roads in Latvia that have lost the significance of their national function – they total approximately 6,000 kilometers.
“We offer these roads to be taken over by local governments. They are mainly roads with very little traffic intensity or with high traffic intensity, but in principle these roads are located in Pieriga, and also, most likely, they have become streets,” he pointed out.
He added that LVC is aware that handing over such roads to municipalities will be a heavy and sometimes unbearable financial burden, but municipalities know how they want to develop in the future, and they could make data-based investment decisions. “By handing over sections of national highways to municipalities, funding for daily maintenance work would come with it, which is approximately 1,560 euros per kilometer,” Akimov said.
Akimov added that the arrangement of the national and municipal road network according to functionality is a systematic reform, which does not mean that all remaining or transferred roads would be repaired immediately.
Currently, the total road network in Latvia is 71,157 kilometers, including 28% or 19,895 kilometers of state-owned roads. Akimovs added that, compared to other European countries, the proportion of state-owned roads in Latvia is higher. For example, in Lithuania, the share of state-owned roads from the total road network is 25.2%, in Estonia – 19%, in Finland and Sweden – 17.2%, and in Denmark – 5.2%.
According to him, international experience shows that in countries with a high-quality overall road network, the proportion of state-owned roads is much lower than in Latvia.
LETA has already reported that on Wednesday LVC is holding a conference “Daily maintenance of the road for sustainability”, in which experts from Latvia, as well as Estonia, Finland and Lithuania will participate. The conference on daily road maintenance issues is being held for the first time in Latvia.
LVC was established at the end of 2004 and is owned by the state. The company manages the national highway network, administers the financing of the national highway network and organizes procurement for the needs of the state. LVC manages more than 20,000 kilometers of national roads.
Source: www.diena.lv
