Audit reveals holes in road repair quality

Photo: Mihkel Maripuu

As assessed by National Audit Office (NAO) over the past decade Road Administration has done a poor job repairing main roads of the land: road renovation standards are partly outdated; road project designs are often of poor quality; monitoring of road renovations is weak; and state money has been used for road maintenance in substantially smaller measure than prescribed by law.

As revealed by NAO audit, operations of Road Administration (RA) were not adequately planned in 2002–2012, wherefore lots of construction plans specified in road management plan were not carried out. At that, problems arose despite the fact that the RA budget, over the time period inspected, almost always corresponded to requests specified in road management plans.

Even so, NAO finds it not surprising that road management plans were ignored – as, glancing at the final costs of the projects, most proved much more expensive than expected; as a rule, the expenses increased by 50 per cent, but in several instances the costs multiplied many times. Therefore, fewer objects could be engaged in.

According to the audit, lion’s share of rise of expenses cannot be explained away by overall price rise, as not even in the biggest boom times have building price indexes increased to this extent.  

Also, RA had difficulty presenting NAO, during the time the audit was being executed, an exhaustive overview of repairs done to main roads. For instance: it was claimed that in 2008–2012 the total volume of repairs was €220m; when checking the data, it turned out the actual amount was larger by more than €100m, reaching to €335m.  

NAO took a closer look at ten three-kilometre sections of main roads, located in various parts of Estonia and renovated during 2002–2012.  In nearly all major projects on main roads, lots of faults had been detected during the renovation, leading to much extra work.

At places, the faults were clearly seen by naked eye; for instance: in project design, the road’s earthworks were narrower than the bridge already located on the section. In another instance, a change in the design to lift the road surface by 30 centimetres was substantiated by waters in Lake Peipsi, located half a kilometre away, possibly rising to record heights; even so, to public knowledge, the area between lake and road has never ever been flooded.

National Audit Office considers it abnormal that, while construction is in progress, hundreds of remarks are filed regarding errors in calculations etc. Also, those performing monitoring have oftentimes been sloppy; they have often failed to perform the required tests and measuring; often, the measurements taken did not correspond to the actual situation; often green light was given to proceed with work ere results came in.

Estonia has adopted the goal that road base should last, without repairs, for 50 years; the upper levels for 15 years. Even so, several signs point to renovated roads not necessarily lasting the 15 years prescribed. As revealed by samples of the audit, the initial patches come four-five years after the repairs were finished.

The audit, prepared with help of road-experts from Finland, revealed that basic roads are basically built as specified in project designs. Still, this will not necessarily guarantee the road will last, as, on the one hand, Estonian design standards allow for much weaker surface than in Finland; on the other hand, load bearing ability of certain materials is probably overestimated – for instance: in Estonian standards, limestone slate is shown to be as strong as granite in Finland.

As advised by Audit Office, economy ministry should review basic principles of financing with the finance minister. Namely, calculations show that state puts only up to 50 per cent of planned fuel excise into road maintenance, the law prescribing about 70 per cent. The difference is covered by EU support and large loans. In the opinion of the auditors, use of EU funds in such ways conflicts the principle of additionality of support prescribing that financial help may only be used where the recipient will be unable to personally find fund for its projects. 

Ministers of economy and finance considered it unnecessary to alter the current model. However, neither did they comment, officially, on the contradiction with additionality principle.

As assured by Audit Office chief auditor Tarmo Olgo, the aim of the audit was not reprimanding Road Administration; rather, they desire to support necessary change. «Since the flood of EU aid started pouring in, over this past decade, the Road Administration has been operating under huge time-pressure where, on state level, the trend has been to start using these vast sums as soon as possible. On the other hand, there have been major problems in the management of RA itself, with reforming the structure thereof and with other issues as well,» he said.

The state own over 16,000 kilometres of highways. National Audit Office audited financing of 1,600 kilometres of main roads, planning of road maintenance, standards and renovation (designing, construction, monitoring). Over the past five years, about €1.2bn has been spent on road management.