Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers has banned transportation of divisible goods weighing more than 40 tons by road. The relevant government resolution No. 869 dated 21 October has already been published, the press service of the Ministry of Infrastructure announced in a press release.
The Ukravtodor state road agency and the road services in all regions of Ukraine will publish information about the new restrictions on their official websites and install the relevant road signs in the near future.
"It is no secret that roads are destroyed by a small section of unscrupulous carriers who violate the existing weight norms... For a very long time, unscrupulous carriers have hidden begin imperfect legislation and got away with it by paying bribes. strict rules will now enter into effect. for effective control, we are significantly increasing the penalties for violations, building a network of 200 points for automatic weight control of vehicles, and buying 100 mobile weighing equipment," Roman Khmil, the director of strategic development of roads and motor transport, is quoted as saying in a press release.
In particular, a ban has been imposed on the movement of trucks carrying divisible cargo if the load on a single axle exceeds 11 tons, the load on a tandem axle exceeds 16 tons, the load on a tridem axle exceeds 22 tons, or if the actual weight exceeds 40 tons. For container trucks, such a ban will be imposed when their weight parameters exceed 11, 18, 24, and 44 tons respectively. For the latter, the weight limit may be exceeded by 2 tons on routes specified by the State Automobile Road Service (Ukravtodor) and the traffic police.
In addition, a ban has been imposed on the movement of vehicles with axle load of more than 7 tons or an actual weight of more than 24 tons on public roads of local importance.
The press release from the Ministry of Infrastructure said that the introduction of the new rules would slow the catastrophic pace of destruction of roads in Ukraine, which will save the state billions of hryvnia on road repairs. According to calculations by experts, the movement of vehicles weighing more than 40 tons leads to reduction of the period between road repairs from 12-18 years to 6-10 years. In addition, it reduces the service lives of bridge structures from the estimated 100 years to 30-40 years.
