In terms of the quality of roads in the world, the Russian Federation occupies one of the last places. Despite the increasing volumes of road construction and the increase in funds allocated for road repairs, the situation has not changed dramatically. The reasons for the high rate of wear of the roadway are many and they are very different.
Natural causes
The climatic conditions in Russia are quite difficult. Hot summers, cold winters and an abundance of rain lead to heavy wear and tear on the roads. Water trapped in natural cracks in the asphalt pavement, which arise for various reasons, including overheating of the roadway, begins to expand when it freezes, increasing the size of the crack.
When warming begins and, accordingly, floods, the soil under the asphalt thaws and, due to the abundant moisture, begins to simply “float”. With intensive exploitation of such a road, pits and dips begin to appear on it.
Technological reasons
The modern road is a "sandwich" that consists of soil, sand and gravel, covered with asphalt on top. Gradually, crushed stone is mixed with sand, sand with soil, which reduces the strength of this composition and the asphalt pavement lying on it.
Better, more durable asphalt mix or plastic geogrid that preserves the integrity of the underlying sand and gravel layers are more expensive than just pouring with asphalt and require more skilled professionals.
In developed countries, geotextiles and geogrids are actively used in the roadbed, which significantly increase the durability of roads. In the USSR, expensive concrete slabs were used for this, which also increased the resource of the road.
In addition, the technology of road construction is very often violated. Often, the layers of sand and gravel, on which the asphalt pavement is to be laid, is not leveled, which leads to the appearance of bumps and voids in the asphalt. In addition, asphalt paving takes place in the cold season, when the hot asphalt loaded in the asphalt concrete plant arrives at the paving site, already cooled and difficult to influence the paver and roller.
As a rule, road repairs in Russia take place irregularly. Usually it is a spot filling of holes and cracks. When water or snow accumulates in them, builders do not bother cleaning them and often simply pave the asphalt on top. When it gets warmer, the repair site begins to resemble a kind of "bubble" filled with water or air. The result is a new pit in the place of the old one.
Technical reasons
Due to the long distances and the prevalence of vehicles, roads in Russia are subject to more intensive use than anywhere else. The traffic flow gradually wears out the roadway. This is especially true of trucks and timber trucks, which literally "break" the asphalt with their wheels.
Loaded timber trucks and lorries that drive along the road 15 times a day are capable of making a new asphalt pavement unusable in 2-3 years, while the road should be repaired once every 4 years.
As a result, the quality of roads in Russia is influenced by a whole range of reasons, which leads to the rapid destruction of the roadway and significant efforts in its restoration.
