The Ukrainian Ministry of Infrastructure is calling for 13 seaports in the country – from Reni to Mariupol – to be connected by a concrete road.
Deputy Minister of Infrastructure Viktor Dovhan announced this in an interview with the Delo publication, the CFTS reports.
"In my opinion, a concrete road should connect all the 13 ports operating in Ukraine, from Reni to Mariupol," the deputy minister said.
According to Dovhan, a project for construction of an Odesa-Mykolaiv-Kherson concrete road is currently being discussed in the ministry. "We have already begun preparing projects: a concrete road of the first category, which will connect the ports in Greater Odesa –Chornomorsk-Odesa-Yuzhny-Mykolaiv port and the Kherson port. That is about 150 kilometers, four lanes, and no restrictions on the weights of trucks. This is the ideal solution to the issue of logistics in ports," he said.
According to him, about USD 150-200 million is needed for construction of a concrete road between Odesa and Kherson. This amount is expected to be borrowed from the Export-Import Bank of China. Construction of this highway should begin in 2018 and last about one and a half years. "I think that the Ministry of Infrastructure will launch construction of a concrete road that will connect the ports in 2018," Dovhan said. In addition, according to the deputy minister, concrete roads are 1.5 times more expensive than asphalt roads.
As reported, Minister of Infrastructure Volodymyr Omelian has declared 2018 as the year of concrete roads. Next year, the Ministry of Infrastructure plans to launch three road reconstruction projects involving replacement of asphalt surfaces with cement concrete.
