ROADS ROADS

Excerpts from Boris Nemtsov's report “Luzhkov. Results»

Boris Nemtsov, former Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, and now one of the leaders of the democratic association "Solidarity", released an expert report "Luzhkov. Results»
Boris Nemtsov, former Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, and now one of the leaders of the democratic association "Solidarity", released an expert report "Luzhkov. Results” Its entire circulation — 200 thousand copies — the author is going to distribute on the streets of Moscow, among those who on October 11 will go to vote for the old / new deputies of the Moscow City Duma. In this report, the politician focuses on two principal themes. First: the inefficiency of the Moscow administration in terms of price-quality ratio. On the one hand, Moscow is the city where the largest concentration of big money and rich people in Russia is, on the other hand, more than 12% of Muscovites have incomes below the subsistence level, a third consider themselves poor, and the gap between the 10% of the richest and 10% of the poorest is 42 times, while in successful European cities - 4-8 times. Housing prices in the capital are higher than in many comparable cities in Europe, and, according to experts, it takes 30 to 80 years to save up for it. Inflation in Moscow is higher than the average for the country, which, in particular, indicates a large turnover of black cash, that is, corrupt money that ends up in the pockets of allowing and prohibiting officials. The number of murders is almost five times higher than in London or Paris, the environmental situation is beyond good and evil, which is why there are twice as many oncological diseases among children than the average for Russia, and the same number of endocrine diseases among adults. The infamous traffic jams in Moscow play an important role in this, which, according to Nemtsov, is a direct result of corruption. And corruption, in turn, - and this is the second main topic of the report - is a consequence of the conflict of interest between the position of Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov and his status as the husband of the richest woman in the country, Elena Baturina, whose promotion in the Forbes magazine's ranking of the richest is connected, as considers the politician, with her status as the wife of the Moscow mayor, in whose jurisdiction the business empire of the first business woman of the country is located. Traffic jams, turning into collapse during peak hours, have become a byword for both Muscovites and everyone who comes to the capital. The cause of traffic jams is well known - this is a huge, more than 3.5 million, car park located in Moscow. The constantly growing number of cars on the roads requires an adequate development of the road network, interchanges, and parking lots. According to Luzhkov, in order to solve the transport problem, it is necessary to build an additional 400 km of roads in Moscow, with the existing network of 4,400 km. 18–20 km of new roads are commissioned in Moscow annually.

* * According to Mikhail Krestmeyer, Deputy Head of the Transport Department of the Research and Development Institute of the General Plan of Moscow. http://www.russianrealty.ru/news/116179.phtml. Thus, at least 20 years are needed to solve the transport problem under Luzhkov's way of managing. At the same time, we do not take into account the sharp reduction in road construction associated with the crisis, and the steady increase in the number of cars on Moscow's roads. So 20 years is only an optimistic estimate of the timing of the solution of the Moscow transport problem.

Ruble across the road
What is the reason for such a difficult and hopeless situation in the road industry? The answer is banal: the unheard of by world standards cost of building roads does not allow solving such a painful problem even at the expense of a solid road construction budget. Thus, solving the problem of traffic jams in Moscow is inextricably linked with overcoming Moscow's corruption. Let's turn to the facts. The average price of the Moscow Ring Road (MKAD) is $100 million per kilometer. * * Vedomosti, July 20, 2001. The construction cost of the Third Transport Ring (TTK) is $117 million per kilometer. Compared to Western building codes, the price looks fantastic. In the US, the cost of building one kilometer of a four-lane road is $4–6 million. A high-quality autobahn in Germany is €8 million per kilometer. One kilometer of a four-lane motorway in China costs $3 million, in Brazil - $3.6 million. Thus, the cost of building Moscow roads is at least ten times higher than the prices accepted in the world.
However, the absolute record in the price per kilometer of the road was set by the construction of four kilometers of the Fourth Transport Ring (ChTK) approved by the Moscow authorities. The total amount of the contract is 66.6 billion rubles, or $537 million per kilometer (at the rate of 31 rubles per dollar)! With the starting price of the tender for a fall slightly above 67 billion rubles, the final price dropped by only 6-7%! * * "Vedomosti" from 02.06. 2008 In total, the Luzhkov government is ready to shell out 660 billion rubles for the construction of 74 kilometers of the Fourth Ring Road - at least, this is the estimate given by Mayor Luzhkov himself. * * http://www.rian.ru/moscow/20081118/155371032.html. This is about $300 million per kilometer of road. The figures are astronomical and do not fit in a normal head.
More expensive than a collider
In fact, a kilometer section of the ChTK is more expensive than the European construction of the century - a 51-kilometer tunnel under the English Channel. But the most impressive is the comparison of the price of the CTC with the cost of building the Large Hadron Collider /.../ The Large Hadron Collider is a circular tunnel, specially equipped with super-powerful sources of magnetic fields and the latest and most expensive devices that monitor the behavior of particle beams accelerated almost to the speed of light with the aim of modeling the Big Bang, the emergence of "black holes" and antimatter. The length of this tunnel is 27 km at a depth of 100 meters. The whole of it costs $10 billion, one kilometer of such a tunnel costs $370 million. Thus, the price of a kilometer of a huge hadron collider is comparable to the price of a kilometer of the Fourth Ring Road, but at the same time it turns out to be significantly less than the first four-kilometer section of its construction. Obviously, with such fabulous construction prices, Moscow will never solve the transport problem. We are dealing with an example of an opaque redistribution of wealth on an unprecedented scale. The reason is the monopolization and extreme corruption of this industry in the city. Impunity is one of the main causes of lawlessness in road construction. Attempts to hold someone accountable for outrages in the construction of roads have never been successful. The sensational case of embezzlement during the construction of the Moscow Ring Road by the management of SU-802 was quietly closed in 2008. Conclusions of the Accounts Chamber that are unpleasant for Luzhkov and the Moscow government * * "Report on the activities of the Chamber of Control and Accounts of Moscow in 2008, the results of control measures, the conclusions, recommendations and proposals arising from them": http://www.ksp.mos.ru./, as well as the "Report on the verification of spending budgetary funds of the city of Moscow allocated for the construction of facilities located in the underbridge and adjacent space of the Third Transport Ring route” dated July 17, 2002 at the request of deputy D. Kataev http://kataev.mos.ru/naprav/25/stat/otchet_kontr. htm about the misuse of funds in the construction of roads remained under wraps.

Mikhail Blinkin, Scientific Director of the Research Institute of Transport and Roads

Mikhail Blinkin, Scientific Director of the Research Institute of Transport and Road Management In world practice, the price of one kilometer of one highway lane, depending on the nature of the passage and many other factors, ranges from $1 to 10 million. For unique objects, these figures are even higher. For example, for the grand Boston BIG DIG project, which includes unique bridges and tunnels, one kilometer of one lane cost $57 million (in terms of a four-lane road - $228 million). For roads outside urban development, and even on good rocky soils, the same kilometer can cost much less. The cost of a kilometer of a four-lane autobahn in Germany is €8 million - an absolutely reasonable price for an extra-urban road. As for climatic conditions, Russia can be compared with Sweden and Canada, but it is ridiculous to compare it with Brazil: since the time of the Spanish conquest there has not been an air temperature below zero, they always have a plus. In addition, there is no shortage of stone materials in Brazil. And on the Russian Plain, for example, there is no crushed granite.

Vyacheslav Lysakov, leader of the movement of motorists "Freedom of choice"

In recent years, the practice of so-called life cycle contracts has become widespread in the world road economy. The organization not only builds the road, but also completely maintains it for 20–30 years: it is responsible for marking, photo and video recording, and repairs. She receives the money in parts - every year. Therefore, companies abroad are interested in building with high quality and not paying for repairs in the future. And our contractors built the road and left, they are not responsible for the quality. The warranty period is usually 2-3 years, now they want to raise it to 7 years. In 2001–2003, road funds were liquidated in Russia, where funds were accumulated for road construction. They were liquidated due to the fact that the money was stolen. In the US, road funds are doing great. Any motorist from the United States (Australia, New Zealand, Western European countries) can at any time go to the website of their road administration and see how much money has come into road funds and what they have been spent on.