Brasília – Brazil must invest 32 billion Brazilian reals (US$ 18.5 billion) to recover all the roads that are in bad conditions for vehicle traffic, according to a research disclosed today (28th) by the National Confederation of Transport (CNT). Among the products found, are bad conditions of tarmac (63.9%), bad signs on highways (54.2%) and roads without shoulders (46.3%).
The research was developed over 45 days and 89,552 kilometres of highways were analysed, including all paved federal roads and the main state roads.
The president at CNT, Clésio Andrade, said that the investment is not enough to maintain or recover the roads. “The government can raise everything to ideal conditions in 10 years. This depends on financial resources and political interest,” he said.
Despite the bad conditions, there has been improvement in comparison with the previous research, for 2007. According to Andrade, there was 26% and 32% growth in the number of highways considered excellent or good.
The worst roads are in the North. Over 90% of the roads are presenting bad conditions. The most critical situation is in Amazonas, which has its entire highway grid considered regular, bad or awful. Then comes Acre, which has 98.7% of its roads in precarious conditions. Roraima was the state that had most of its roads considered bad.
The best roads are in the Southeast, where 45.7% are in good conditions. São Paulo has the best highways. Over 70% are considered good or excellent. In the state of Minas Gerais, 73.7% of the roads were evaluated as bad, awful or regular. Only two highways were considered excellent or good.
In total, 69% of the Brazilian roads are considered bad, whereas 31% are in good conditions. Among the roads that are publically managed, 77.6% do not present good conditions for drivers and the remaining 22.4% present good driveability. In the case of privatised roads, the situation is inverted: 76.5% are in good conditions and 23.5% present problems.
*Translated by Mark Ament
