“Very soon the ride from Odesa to Kyiv will take three hours and one hour from Odesa to Liubashivka,” Odesa Rail Company Director Illia Levytsky stated with confidence recently. The Odesa-Kyiv superhighway will significantly reduce the drivers’ time behind the wheel. To quote Ukraine’s Transport Minister Heorhy Kyrpa, already on August 24 Ukraine’s first superhighway that meets all European standards will be inaugurated.
Stretching for 454 kilometers, the Kyiv-Odesa highway is part of the Ninth International Transport Corridor and the Baltic Sea - Black Sea Transport Corridor. Its main stretch, from Zhashkiv in Cherkasy oblast to the village of Krasnoznamyanka in Odesa oblast, was constructed in the 1950s. The old road has long failed to meet modern standards. Last year, the Law On Reconstruction and Toll- based Operation of the Zhashkiv-Krasnoznamyanka Stretch of the Kyiv-Odesa Highway passed the parliament. Under the law, loans were to be used to finance the reconstruction of the highway, with Ukraine’s commercial banks expected to provide the money, but they showed no interest in the project. Then the Ukrainian Rail Company was appointed general contractor to reconstruct the Zhashkiv- Krasnoznamyanka stretch of the highway. The company spent over half a billion hryvnias for construction purposes last year alone and another UAH 165 million this year. Yet the shortage of funds still hampers the gigantic construction project. To quote Levytsky, arrangements have been reached with Italian investors who are willing to invest up to 300 million euros in the superhighway.
“This construction project is unique for Ukraine in many ways,” says chief engineer of the Odesa Oblast Motor Roads Company Mykhailo Nekrasov. “Out time limits exceed the norm by three or four times, since we lack experience in building superhighways. Thus, the participation of foreign companies that possess modern construction machines is most welcome. At present, there are Germans, Turks, Russians, and Moldavians working on the highway. We are soon expecting Finnish construction workers.”
Complex terrain is one of the stumbling blocks in the project. Steep downward slopes alternate with acclivities stretching for almost fifty kilometers. To level the road, over 1.5 million cubic meters of ground will have to be moved. At some sections as much as twenty meters of ground needs to be moved. As a result, one kilometer of the road will have a price tag of some thirty million hryvnias.
Still, the superhighway is not only about a modern roadway. It is equally important to simultaneously create the associated infrastructure: hotels, parking lots for trucks, gas stations, and so forth. Both foreign and Ukrainian investors are willing to actively participate in the construction of these installations.
However, a number of problems remain unsolved. For example, what tolls will be charged for using the highway? Where will they build a free byroad? Who and at whose cost will bring it in order? The highway constructors promise to answer these and other questions after August 24.
