AB "Kelio berža" announces that 25 m000 of potholes or almost 2 basketball courts have been filled in three months of this year. According to the road workers, fewer potholes were repaired this year than in the same period last year, because additional work was promptly carried out in the autumn, with additional funding allocated for this purpose. In addition, newly applied technologies that allow recording road defects with a convenient mobile application contributed to a more successful and faster process.
As you know, potholes are dug in the roads every day. Water enters the roads where cracks and a network of cracks are formed, during temperature fluctuations, the pavement is deformed due to freezing water, cracks are formed in those sections during traffic. These were still in early autumn.
At the same time, on the initiative of the Ministry of Transport, in the fourth quarter of last year, more than 15 million were redistributed to the company "Keliau bereža". euros, and this already in October 2022, in November allowed hundreds of thousands to be repaired. sq. m. isolated potholes and cracks on main, regional and district roads. In this way, the Road Maintenance and Development Program in 2022 financing funds and their additional allocation at the end of the year strongly contributed to continuous road maintenance throughout the entire national road network of Lithuania.
"As the weather warms up, holes that open up are, as you know, a natural phenomenon. This winter was not kind to the roads due to a light frost and constant thawing cycles, but we already repaired the first punctures in January. While the air temperature is below zero, the potholes are filled with so-called cold asphalt, but only when the weather warms up - we have already filled some of the potholes with hot asphalt, the other part is in the process," says Karolis Sakalauskas, the representative of AB "Keliu beraža" responsible for the maintenance of state roads.
According to him, the winter season in Lithuania, as is becoming usual, was not kind especially to those roads that have the aforementioned cracks or networks of cracks due to light frost and constant frost cycles. This is especially noticeable in those sections where water does not drain in and around the pavement structure and there is heavy heavy traffic. In this way, according to road users, deformations are formed, which are very dangerous and quickly turn into large potholes.
However, prevention solutions were also applied. The "Road maintenance" team preventively records such areas and fills already forming potholes that do not reach the limit values of the requirements in order to ensure safe travel. After filling the pits in a temporary way, using cold mixes, then after the end of the technological break, long-term repair of these pits is organized. Hot asphalt mixes are used for this. On the most intensive roads, hot repair is also applied during the winter period, using the company's new asphalt concrete recycler. A pothole repaired with the help of this device is stronger and provides smoother trips until long-term pothole repair measures are applied.
According to K. Sakalauskas, "Road maintenance" has been recording and removing defects on the country's roads even faster for some time. More than 21,500 thousand km, the Lithuanian road maintenance company implemented a smooth patrol inspection process together with a mobile defect recording app a year ago. Seeing the positive results of the new procedures, it is planned to expand their application even further.
"In order to ensure even higher quality and faster "Road maintenance" services, it was decided to immediately solve the problem of the uniformity of road inspection and create a unified system of patrol inspections. After creating a special application, the quality and speed of inspections improved significantly, and more road defects can be identified," says the representative of Road Maintenance.
Although road officials are constantly patrolling the roads, drivers are still asked to be vigilant. Particular attention should be paid when driving in places where it is difficult to see a possible pothole, so it is necessary to choose a safe speed, observe road signs: especially at dark, during or after rain, when potholes are filled with water.
Drivers can also inform about dangerous potholes or other obstacles that pose a risk to traffic safety by calling the Traffic Information Center tel. no. 1871 (the price of the short phone number is EUR 0,09/min.).
According to "Road Maintenance", all roads of state significance are inspected at the specified periodicity, and the response is based on the results of patrol inspections, received external reports, the order and importance of fixed defects. Upon receipt of critical information, work is organized and carried out immediately.
