The Ukrainian State Road Agency (Ukravtodor) has delivered a report on the implementation of the National Program for Restoration of Bridges, which began in April last year. Almost 300 facilities have been repaired since then.
Ukravtodor announced this in a statement, the CFTS portal reports.
The National Program for Restoration of Bridges is intended for implementation over a period of being five years.
According to the statement, the main problem with the country's bridges is that they are outdated. Eighty percent of the bridges in Ukraine were built before 1980, and they were not maintained properly.
According to Ukravtodor’s deputy head and coordinator of the National Program for Restoration of Bridges Andrii Ivko, 73% of the bridges across national roads and 25% across local roads have been inspected. The inspections showed that 53% of all the bridges do not meet the regulatory requirements.
"710 bridges require urgent repair. The conditions of 160 of them are close to unsafe. Some of these bridges are in critical condition, so their renewal is a matter of national security," he said.
Reconstruction, major repairs, and routine intermediate maintenance have been performed on 158 bridges since the launch of the program in April 2020.
Restoration of about 165 bridges is planned for 2021.
Funding for the program amounts to UAH 4 billion in 2021.
"138 facilities are in the final stage. This is more than 83% of the planned volume. After 16 months of implementation of the program, 296 artificial structures have been restored. An important achievement is the completion of several facilities, the construction or repair of which began many years ago but was not completed," Ukravtodor said.