The road to Russia’s future – President Medvedev’s much-hyped Skolkovo innovation centre – is already in a pitiful condition just nine months after its official opening.
And its shoddy state makes it merely the most high-profile road to be run-down, according to a report from the Prosecutor General’s office.
According to those figures one accident in five is caused by poor quality routes which don’t meet safety requirements.
And all this is happening as governing bodies all around the country that are reluctant to observe the law, prosecutors have found.
Special attention for Skolkovo
The Skolkovo road, however, is different.
Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov, who lives not far from Skolkovo and uses the road himself, called for a survey of the recently-built route in response to concerns about its quality.
But while road developers say there is nothing special about it, experts say major damage is still to come once the weather warms up.
“The full range of problems will appear in May, when the ground will defrost completely,” Oleg Skvortsov, president of the RODOS association of road research organisations, told gazeta.ru website.
An internal probe orgnised by the road management department of Moscow Region has found cracks on the surface and other problems.
Other media claimed problems to be more severe, such as worn-out asphalt, leaks in the tunnel, bridge deformation and the breakdown of pavements.
The department representatives denied most of these claims adding that all existing damages are to be fixed on expense of contractors by summer.
“There are thermal cracks, but they always appear on roads in winter,” Yury Arkhipov, chief engineer at Mosavtodor, the department’s subordinate organisaion, said.
From fanfare to failure
The road was opened last summer, and Shuvalov, Moscow region’s governor Boris Gromoz and deputy transport minister Oleg Belozerov cut the ribbon.
And so-called state-of-the-art technologies that helped complete the construction earlier that prescribed by technical standards, are now blamed for the damage.
Problems were exacerbated by mistaken documentation, low quality work and cheap materials, online business-daily Marker reported.
The development of the 5.34 kilometre highway cost 5.75 billon roubles jointly funded by federal and regional governments.