Rosavtodor and Stroyproekt: Cost of roads and prospects of regional PPP projects

At the TASS News Agency, the road sector experts gave a press-conference and spoke about costs of the Russian roads, as compared to the western analogues, and technical and economic parameters of bridges. The experts also discussed various engineering approaches used in Russia and Europe and prospects of regional PPP projects development.   
 
The event was attended by Acting Director of Engineering and Construction Division of Federal Road Agency (Rosavtodor) Dmitry Laptev, General Director PAO Mostotrest Vladimir Vlasov, General Director Institute Stroyproekt Aleksei Zhurbin, Deputy General Director/Technical Director Institute Stroyproekt Aleksei Surovtsev and Deputy Technical Director/Chief Engineer of Stroyproekt Moscow Branch Alexander Krainik.
Aleksei Zhurbin spoke about successful experience in PPP projects using as an example a new Ob river crossing project in Novosibirsk. He reported on methods of the ROI calculation for private investors and on the outcomes of optimal toll modelling that included a public opinion survey. Four scenarios providing for different state participation in the project were developed. A scenario with equal shares of public and private investment was considered to be an optimal one. This scenario allows to get incomes both for the state budget and for the private investor while maintaining reasonable costs for the investor. The optimal fee was modelled considering traffic intensity in function of a toll tariff. To determine an optimal tariff, a sociological survey was carried out that allowed finding the appropriate balance between the tariff and the forecasted average daily traffic.
Before the Central Bank increased the key interest rate, the financial model had shown a high budget efficiency of the project. With the increased key rate, the model shows a lower profitability of the project; however, recently the key rate of the Central Bank has been constantly lowering. Stabilisation of the Russian economy and a lower key rate of the Central Bank will allow the concessionaire to get a stable guaranteed income.  Besides, Aleksei Zhurbin pointed out the significance of a federal participation in regional PPP projects. According to him, implementation of reginal projects will be almost unfeasible without the federal support.
Aleksei Surovtsev reported on the research study carried out by Stroyproekt for Rosavtodor. The study was intended to analyse technical solutions applied in bridge engineering in the EU and to compare technical and economic parameters of structures and structural designs in Russia and Europe.
Alexander Krainik explained the difference between the Russian and German road design approaches referring to the M-4 Don motor rehabilitation project as an example. The speakers highlighted the need to develop updated road design standards that will take into account both Russian and European experience and practices.

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