OREANDA-NEWS. On July 14, 2007 Kazakh Prime Minister Karim Massimov inspected construction of the Astana – Schuchinsk autobahn which will shortly link the Kazakh capital to the Borovoye resort zone, reported the Official website www.en.government.kz.

Kazakh Prime Minister Karim Massimov inspected construction of the Astana – Schuchinsk autobahn which will shortly link the Kazakh capital to the Borovoye resort zone.

On his tour, the Prime Minister was accompanied by Mr. Serik Akhmetov, Kazakh Transport Minister. According to the Minister, the first three lanes of the autobahn will be commissioned in October 2007. Traffic along all the six lanes will be possible starting from 2008; while all the infrastructure facilities along the route will be constructed by 2009. The 224-km-long road linking Astana to Schuchinsk city is one of the most overloaded in the country. Through capacity of the new autobahn will eventually make up 40 000 cars per day.

The project is valued at KZT 102 billion. KZT 41 billion will be absorbed in the current year. The project provides for construction of 23 overpasses, 5 stations of road maintenance service, and three wayside complexes to attend to recreation needs of the travelers. So-called “intelligent” systems of video surveillance, meteorological stations, speed- and traffic intensity-measuring facilities will be also installed.

A new German technology to lay cement concrete has been used for the first time in Kazakhstan.  Director General of Gьnter Papenburg AG (the master contractor) says that they lay 1 km of the road a day. Cost of the cement concrete surface is 20% more expensive than that of asphalt surface, but concrete exceeds asphalt in terms of quality.

If this particular technology turns out to be effective in Kazakhstan, it will be employed when constructing other transport corridors of the country, Minister Akhmetov said in an interview. “Today all the five companies are working round the clock. I believe there will be no delays. And this coming autumn we will launch three lanes”. 

Construction works on the road are carried out by three Kazakh companies and two foreign companies - Todini of Italy and Dena KZ of Iran.