“Cement Roads” Progamme In Belarus Broke Down

It has happened just like in a well-known fable, when a greedy merchant wanted to sew from a lambskin as many hats as possible.

The program of cement warehouses clearing by construction of cement roads has gone down in flames.

We remind that in early 2015 by an instruction of the president the Council of Ministers developed and rubberstamped the Programme of Effective Use of Cement Industry Production Capacities.

Its main aim was to build cement roads with the use of Belarusian cement all over the country. After the external market demands changed, it became difficult for the Belarusian cement to be competitive on external markets. The programme allowed solving two tasks at once: to build a network of durable roads and to give work to three Belarusian plants, which could not get sufficient workload for their capacities after modernization, and to get enough money to repay debts. However the far-reaching plans proved to be impossible to turn into reality, ej.by informs.

It had been supposed that at least 10% of the cement produced in the country would be used for road construction. In this connection the Ministry of Transport and Communications, and all region and Minsk executive committees received targets concerning road construction with the use of cement. Only the Transport Ministry has really fulfilled the plan, and that was only thanks to construction of the second ring road around the capital, where cement had been always used before even without any programmes adopted. In the country in general construction of “cement roads” is almost not performed.

There are several reasons for this situation. As noted by the State Control Committee, the targets to regions had been sent without any realistic estimation of capabilities for this new construction. The Ministry of Architecture and Construction has simply taken all the amount of budget financing earmarked for construction and reconstruction of engineering and transportation infrastructure facilities, divided it between regions, and proceeding from these figures, counted who and how much cement should use for new roads construction.

Region executive committees didn’t even resist, they simply consented, and continued to work as before. It was impossible from the start to use the amount of cement which had been dictated by higher authorities. Firstly, cement road construction is more expensive. Secondly, new expensive road equipment is needed for that. And no one had allocated additional funds for that.

In general, the situation reminds the well-known fable, when a greedy merchant wanted to make from a lambskin as many hats as possible. The fur-dresser had to agree to make two, three, and then ten hats. In the same way regional executive committees agreed to perform the task, and have made what was really possible for them. They would have agreed even for a twice as high target – the result would be the same.

According to the State Control Committee, only 5% of cement produced in the country has been used for road construction, and not 10% as it had been planned. The State Control Committee recommended the government to punish those culpable. Regional executive committees promised to use Belarusian cement on roads more actively in 2016. And there the matter dropped. However, like in 2015, now cement is used mostly at construction of the Second ring road in Minsk.

Minsk city executive committee has demonstrated some activity, as it started to use cement at yard territories. In Vialiki Kamen park cement is used on roads. In all other areas the situation remains the same. As in order to reform road construction across the country huge investment is needed – not only in cement, but in new road-building machinery. And there is no money in the budget for that.