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The designer of Atyrau-Astrakhan road reconstruction project, who made a mistake, due to which there was a serious delay in construction work, was brought to responsibility.

Minister of Industry and Infrastructure Development Kairbek Uskenbaev said this at a public discussion of the road construction in the western regions of Kazakhstan.

Deputy of the Senate of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan Gumar Dyusembaev, during a meeting at the site of the CCS under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, raised the issue of the reasons for the delay in the construction of Atyrau-Astrakhan road, and the possibility of new delays due to the rise in the cost of building materials.

Answering a question, the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan noted that the cost of road reconstruction with a total length of 277 km is 87.4 billion tenge. From 2019 to 2021, the reconstruction of the first stage was carried out with a length of 60 km from the border of Russian Federation to Ganyushkino village. 22 billion tenge was spent on work. Now traffic on the section with a new pavement is open.

Since 2020, the implementation of the second stage with a length of 217 km (65.4 billion tenge), financed by an EBRD loan, has begun. Four contracting companies are involved in the project implementation: Lankaran Yol Tikinti, Todini Construzioni Generali S.p.A, Ant Insaat Maden Sanayi and “SMS” JV” LLP. The start of the project was really delayed.

“In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic had a serious impact, due to which there were difficulties with the mobilization of personnel and road maintenance equipment. In addition, during the project implementation, we have experienced an error in the design by the design institute “Zhana Zhol” LLP. A layer was laid in the pavement with the addition of soil from local borrow pits, which did not meet the specified requirements due to the significant content of gypsum. The project designer was brought to responsibility for the miscalculations,” K. Uskenbaev said.

In 2021, according to him, road companies carried out work only on filling the subgrade and constructing artificial structures. At the same time, changes were made to the design of the pavement, and only in November last year, the conclusions of the state examination were received.

“The issue of price adjustment of work is regulated by the terms of contracts under the rules of FIDIC (International Federation of Consulting Engineers), which provide for a change in the cost of the main road building materials used in construction,” the minister added.

Regarding future prospects, he noted that this year it is planned to ensure the passage of cars, and in 2023 to fully complete the project.