Significant Work Planned for Road Markings and Upgrades, Margaryan

This year, significant work is planned regarding the road markings and upgrades of interstate and republican roads in the country. Gor Margaryan, head of the Roads Maintenance and Operation Division of the Road Department Foundation, stated during a press conference at the Armenpress press hall that to ensure safe traffic, work will be carried out on a total length of 2,764 kilometers from spring to autumn. New markings will be applied or existing ones refreshed over an area of 640,000 square meters.

Thirty-three organizations service the interstate and republican roads. “In certain road sections, depending on traffic intensity and tourism significance, markings will be carried out twice during the year. Regarding road signs, work is also actively ongoing in that direction. For instance, in 2023, restoration work was carried out on 3,792 road signs. I should mention that to ensure the proper quality of markings and visibility of the signs, we are acquiring new equipment. The Road Department Foundation has announced a competition to purchase equipment for verifying the quality of road sign reflectivity and marking visibility. We already have a winning organization that will deliver these tools by May,” said Gor Margaryan.

Despite large-scale construction works being carried out in the country, drivers continue to complain about potholes. Margaryan noted that due to winter weather conditions, a large number of potholes arise. Indeed, during winter, contractors fill potholes deeper than 5 cm with a sand-gravel mixture; however, as the weather warms up, work on pothole repairs begins. From April 1, pothole repair works on interstate and republican roads have commenced.

Margaryan informed that a new toolkit is being applied to more effectively supervise the work of contracting organizations responsible for road maintenance and to respond quickly to issues. Road monitoring is performed electronically through the mobile application of the road network management system. Territorial engineers conduct inspections, document deficiencies, take photographs, and send them electronically to the contractors on-site. The contractors are obligated to rectify the deficiencies and send photographs of the corrected works to the operator at the Road Department.

In 2023, a total of 3,510 deficiencies were recorded through this system, while in the first three months of 2024, 914 deficiencies have been documented. Significant work has been done to increase safety levels on sections deemed more hazardous, known as black spots. Between 2021-2023, safety improvement works were carried out in 47 accident-prone areas, including the installation of traffic lights, construction of traffic-calming islands, and the installation of new signs to reduce speed.

Organizing road maintenance work properly is closely related to the behavior and attitude of citizens. Gor Margaryan emphasized that there are numerous cases where citizens dump large volumes of garbage on the sides of roads, whether construction debris or household waste. “The organizations performing services collect enormous amounts of garbage from the roads daily. My plea to our citizens is to keep our environment clean and refrain from littering on the roads,” added Gor Margaryan.