Winter Maintenance of National Roads Starts from 17 November

The winter maintenance of the national road network is implemented from 17 November by an Order of the Chairman of the Management Board of Road Infrastructure Agency, eng. Lazar Lazarov. As of Monday 24-hour working regime is introduced in the 27 regional road administrations, as well as in the road maintenance companies. From this date on, all the snow cleaning companies shall be obligated to apply the rules for cleaning the roads under winter conditions, the Minister of Regional Development and Public Works, Lilyana Pavlova emphasized at a press conference.

It will be checked up on 18 November whether the companies, for which omissions in the preparation were found, have removed them and whether they have the needed equipment and materials, the Minister indicated.

The maintenance of 20 000 km of the national roads will be provided for by over 3000 snow cleaning machines – snow-ploughs, equipment for sand-scattering, etc. during the winter months. As at todays date over 142 thousand tons of sand, nearly 54 thousand tons of salt, as well as over 3700 tons of lye were supplied to the supporting points.

The readiness for the maintenance of the roads in the regions of Sofia, Pernik, Pleven, Stara Zagora and Smolyan has still not been provided for to the needed degree. The road maintenance companies are required promptly to undertake measures for the elimination of the omissions, eng. Lazarov pointed out. The company in the region of Smolyan has readiness for work but its contract expires at the end of the month and the signing of the contract with the new contractor is forthcoming.

The regions of Montana and Silistra are ready 100% and nearly the 100 per cent is the readiness of 8 regions – Vidin, Vratsa, Kyustendil, Kardzhali, Veliko Tarnovo, Targovishte, Razgrad and Dobrich. In the remaining regions (Lovech, Gabrovo, Plovdiv, Pazardzhik, Blagoevgrad, Haskovo, Sliven, Yambol, Shumen, Burgas and Varna), the supply of raw materials covers the requirements under the contract – as at the date of the introduction of the order for winter maintenance of the national roads so that about 60 % of the raw materials needed for the season should be provided for.

The Chairman of the Management Board of the Road Infrastructure Agency, eng. Lazar Lazarov, indicated that the snow cleaning companies shall be required 6 hours prior to the beginning of the snow forecasted by the meteorologists to locate the equipment in the defined locations and that their drivers should be ready for starting up the snow cleaning activities. The objective is that the time for response should be maximally shortened and that the road maintenance equipment should provide for the required winter roadability.

The levels for winter maintenance of the road infrastructure are four in number. They are regulated in the Ordinance on Maintenance and Current Repair of the Roads of 2012.

The roads with traffic intensity over 4 000 motor vehicles per day as the motorways and the first class roads are, are in level „А“ for winter maintenance. The roads with traffic between 2 000 and 4 000 motor vehicles per day are in level “В”, between 500 and 2000 motor vehicles per day are in „С“ and less than 500 motor vehicles per day are in level „D“. The admissible thickness of the snow cover of the road carriageway for level „А“ is 3 cm, for level „В“ – 5 cm, for level „С“ – 7 cm, for level „D“ – 10 cm in snow cleaning.

The maximal term for the implementation of the snow cleaning activities – from the moment of stopping the snowfall, or from the time of stating the icing of the roads up to the satisfaction of the requirements, for level „А“ is 2 hours, for „В“ – 3 hours, for „С“ – 5 hours, and „D“ – 8 hours.

These levels shall not refer to the events with complicated meteorological situation – intensive snowfalls with big snowdrifts, snow storms with velocity of the wind over 20 m/s, as well as in events of occurrence of a disaster situation in the relevant area.

The requirements for the maintenance of the roads in Sweden, Lithuania, Austria and a number of other countries are similar as well. In some countries during snowfall, no snow cleaning activities are implemented until the snowfall stops, eng. Lazarov said.

All the citizens and transport companies may receive information about the current road situation and the winter maintenance of the national road network at any time of the day and night on tel.: 0700 130 20 in the Road Infrastructure Agency. A Situational Center works in the Agency with a 24-hour working regime all the year round, which collects and generalizes the data about the situation along the national roads.  

The Road Infrastructure Agency calls the drivers to start the preparation of their vehicles for movement under winter conditions. They should drive carefully at consistent speed, to observe the traffic rules, the needed distance and the instructions of the control authorities.

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