Construction of roads. Why are roads so expensive?

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:46

Roads are the blood vessels of a country.

General condition of Russian roads

Roads connect the regions of the state into a single transport, economic and political space. Neglecting the state of this branch of the national infrastructure can lead to tragic consequences. More recently, the bulk of Russian roads terrified and desponded.

The roads were not only bad, they were impassable due to the condition of the roadway. The question was not about how long it would take to get there, but about the very possibility of movement without destroying equipment due to the destruction of the running gear.

Today the situation is being radically corrected by the efforts of the Russian leadership. The situation is improving, and the main highways of the country are being intensively put in order. The cost is confusingwhy are roads so expensive? It becomes obvious that the presence of normal roads in the country is not the result of a one-time effort, but a permanent set of costly measures.

Climatic factors

The natural conditions of the territory are the determining factor in the price of communications. They provide an answer to the question why roads are so expensive. Severe winters and hot summers adversely affect their condition. The depth of soil freezing in Russia is on average one and a half meters. Frost heaving of water-saturated soil causes the destruction of the road surface. This is one of the reasons why roads are so expensive. In the hot season, the destruction and deformation of the asph alt layer occurs.

Building technology

A well-built road requires advanced construction techniques and a large amount of work. Attempts to reduce the cost of construction result in a significant deterioration in quality. Fulfillment of all technological requirements is very costly. But it is difficult for a non-professional to explain the scale of the costs and prove why the roads are so expensive.

To understand the level of costs, it is enough to recall that a good road foundation requires excavation to the depth of its freezing and replacement with carefully compacted sand with certain physical parameters. In addition to expensive equipment, there is a need to transport materials over a considerable distance. And this is just one of the factors that determine why the roads are sodear.

Blade load

The magnitude of the traffic load on the road is of great importance. Almost all of the old communication routes were not designed for the heavy traffic of heavy vehicles. Not only the asph alt surface is destroyed, but also the base of the roadway. Constant repairs only keep the highway in working order. The need for such work explains why roads are so expensive. The high cost of maintaining existing communications allows you to gain time before the overhaul of the canvas.

Tolerating the traffic load without breaking the road requires thickening the asph alt pavement, using modern asph alt paving techniques to create a dense and smooth pavement. Special asph alt formulations are needed to enable it to withstand the heavy traffic of heavy vehicles. That's why roads are so expensive.

Changing the formulations and improving the quality of the asph alt mix is provided by more expensive equipment and careful adherence to technology.

Price of construction and operation

The price of road construction includes not only the canvas, but the entire surrounding infrastructure. Modern highways require the construction of multi-level interchanges, the organization of exits, the reconstruction of bridges and drainage structures. Given the amount of costs, it is easy to understand why roads in Russia are so expensive. Almost nothing from the old roadremains.

It should be noted that construction work during the reconstruction of roads is carried out in the conditions of existing highways. Although both sides experience inconvenience, for builders this means a slowdown in the pace of work and an increase in the cost of the facility.

Another reason why roads are so expensive is the level of operating costs. The main load falls on the autumn-winter period. Roads have to be sprinkled with reagents and cleared of ice over a huge stretch.

A significant number of people and specialized equipment are involved in the work. It takes a huge amount of reagents to sprinkle the tracks. Relatively cheap compositions, for example, a sand-s alt mixture, have a bad effect on the asph alt surface, causing its erosion and destruction. Gentle compositions are significantly more expensive.

Besides machinery, winter road maintenance requires considerable manual labor. Removal of snow and ice from road construction elements, noise barriers, barrier fences, walkways and sidewalks, so far carried out mainly by hand.

Is there a way out?

A change in the situation with communication routes should be expected only after large-scale investments in their construction. The main one-time costs relate to the construction of the base of the roadbed of the required configuration and profile.

The cost of excavation and related work explains why it is so expensive to build a road in Russia. Replacement of weak, water-saturated soils, raising the canvas to the designmarking or cutting off the excess level of the route will create the basis of the road network of a new level.

Further operation will include road maintenance costs dictated by seasonality. These are inevitable costs determined by geographical and climatic reasons. Major investments will already be made during the construction phase.

Restoration of asph alt concrete pavement with timely and prompt maintenance will be much cheaper than the current level. A properly constructed base and improved pavement will reduce road wear.