International and national practice for estimating cash expenditures of road replacement, repair and maintenance

Abstract

The paper considers the importance of the uninterrupted functioning of the transport network, which is the most important condition for eliminating the transport inaccessibility of Arctic territories of the regions, thus excluding transport discrimination of the population living in the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation. Besides, the paper provides a brief overview of international road repair and maintenance experience on the example of Norway, analysis of the standard for repair and maintenance of roads in the Russian Federation, proposals on the method of calculating the cash expenditures of replacement, repair and maintenance of roads in the Russian Federation. The Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 658 dated May 30, 2017 approved the standards of financial expenditures and the rules for calculating the size of federal budget allocations for replacement, repair and maintenance of federal roads. However, at the moment, not all regions have updated the regulatory framework on the norms of financial expenditures and the rules for calculating budget allocations for replacement, repair and maintenance of regional and inter-municipal roads. The existing methodology for calculating the cost of repair and maintenance of roads in the Arctic territory of Russia does not fully provide the need to bring the existing roads into normal transport and operational condition for their safe operation. The analysis shows that there is no systematic work to ensure sustainable financing of the road economy in the republic and the road industry is financed at a level much lower than the actual needs.