KazAvtoZhol: Transit boom creating serious problems for Kazakhstan's road network

The rapid increase in transit freight traffic volumes, the growing burden on road infrastructure, and the shortfall in toll road revenues to fully cover operational costs - these are the key challenges faced by Kazakhstan's national road operator, Sagi Sadykuly, Chief Engineer of JSC NC KazAvtoZhol, said during the session "Seamless Eurasia: A Logistics Hub at the Crossroads of Continents" at the Annual Meeting and Business Forum of the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB), Report informs.

"Over the past 3-4 years, there has been a massive increase in transit flow, which, accordingly, has led to a significant increase in the burden on the existing road network," the engineer noted.

As Sadykuly pointed out, the second significant problem lies in the discrepancy between current standards and actual operational loads: modern heavy-duty trucks and dump trucks manufactured in China, Russia, and Europe substantially exceed the load-bearing parameters for which Kazakh roads were originally designed. The result is accelerated rutting and a significant reduction in maintenance intervals.

As a third challenge, the KazAvtoZhol representative identified the issue of the financial sustainability of the entire system.

"The operator should ensure that toll road revenues provide 100% coverage of maintenance costs and, going forward, partially offset borrowed funds raised for infrastructure projects.

At the same time, the most profitable sections, primarily the Western Europe–Western China International Transit Corridor, effectively subsidize road maintenance in the northern and central regions of the country," Sadykuly added.