The Ukrainian Ministry of Infrastructure plans to begin three projects involving reconstruction of a total of 232 kilometers of roads, which involve the use of cement concrete surfaces, in 2018. The projects will cost approximately UAH 8 billion. This was announced at a meeting of the parliament’s transport committee, the Interfax Ukraine news agency reports.

The first project involves reconstruction of Zhytomyr’s northern bypass road along the M-06 Kyiv-Chop highway (22.3 kilometers).

"Upgrade of the road to category 1b (widening of the highway from two to four lanes with an estimated traffic intensity of 14,000 vehicles) is planned. Land has already been allocated," said Viktor Sasin, director of the department for strategic development of the road market and road transport at the Ministry of Infrastructure.

According to Andrii Chabanovskyi, a representative of the State Road Agency (Ukravtodor), the reconstruction cost will be UAH 1 billion. The project is being financed with a loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).

In addition, the investment project involving reconstruction of the Dnipro-Reshetylivka N-31 highway provides for expansion of the road from two to four lanes, as well as the use of a cement concrete surface (137 kilometers), Sasin said. According to Ukravtodor, the cost of this project is UAH 5.4 billion.

Major repairs are also expected to be performed on the section of the Kropyvnytskyi-Mykolaiv N-11 highway in the Mykolaiv region (73 kilometers), Chabanovskyi said. According to the prepared project, the road will have a cement concrete surface. The cost of this project is UAH 1.6 billion, and the repair work will begin in 2018.