Who is responsible for the condition of the roads?
Any road belongs to someone, and the owner is responsible for its condition. In the city, this is municipal property, so the city authorities are responsible for repairs. The road near the shopping center is most likely under the control of its owner, so the administration must patch it up. In the yard Explanation of the Main Traffic Safety Inspectorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia that the entrances to residential buildings are under the jurisdiction of the State Traffic Inspectorate - this is the local area or municipal property. Depending on the owner, either the management company, the HOA, or the city authorities must repair these areas.
It doesn't matter who owns the road. The main thing is that any road can be repaired.
Where can a citizen turn if the requirements for road repairs are not met?
If a violation of technical regulations is detected regarding the condition of motor roads, any citizen can file a complaint with the Department for Repair and Maintenance of City Roads of the Department of Housing and Public Utilities and City Improvement.
Below is a list of example situations in which contacting management is possible:
- If you want to find out the beginning and timing of repairs and reconstruction of certain sections of roads;
- If a threat or emergency situation is detected at the road site;
- If it is discovered that the roadway is in poor condition;
- If it is discovered that work is being carried out by a road company not in accordance with the normatively established rules (the necessary road signs are missing, the next work is carried out in inappropriate weather conditions, and other situations);
- If there are established facts of inadequate quality of work performed on reconstruction, repair or construction of roads;
- If a fact of ownerlessness of the roadway is discovered (it is not in anyone’s ownership).
When contacting the department, an official response in writing on the established letterhead of the institution is given within 30 days (the contact information of the applicant must be provided).
What problems can you complain about?
The condition of roads is regulated by GOST GOST R 50597‑2017. Roads and streets. Requirements for operational condition acceptable under the conditions of ensuring road safety. Control methods . It contains acceptable requirements for the road surface, roadsides, bicycle paths and other infrastructure elements. If there are deviations from the standards, they must be eliminated. In the case of roads, violations are the following conditions:
- The holes are longer than 15 cm (imagine a hundred-ruble bill), wider than 60 cm (twice the length of an A4 sheet) and deeper than 5 cm (the height of a bank card).
- Potholes are smaller in size, but on a section of the road with a length of 100 m or more.
- Waves more than 3 cm deep on main streets and more than 5 cm on local streets.
- Ruts are 2–3 cm deep depending on the category of the road. Ruts of more than 5 cm are eliminated through major repairs.
- Rails, railway tracks, storm drain gratings and well hatches are underestimated or overestimated by more than 1 cm.
These violations must be corrected in 1-14 days depending on the problem and traffic congestion. For example, a pothole on a highway that runs through the entire city must be repaired within a day, while on a bicycle path or in a residential area – within 12 days.
Previously, GOST R 50597‑93 was in force, but now it is no longer relevant. You need to focus on the new GOST R 50597‑2017. It does not provide for deviations from the established parameters of the road surface, as stated in paragraph 5.2.4: “The roadway surface should not have defects in the form of potholes, subsidence, breaks, ruts and other damage.”
Yuri Avanesov
Leading lawyer of the European Legal Service
Maximum permissible violations of road integrity
Having understood the question of who is responsible for the roads in the city, we will now consider permissible violations of the quality and integrity of roadways in accordance with Russian GOST No. 50597 - 93:
The maximum depth of subsidence, potholes and pits should not exceed 5 cm, the length of the violation should not be more than 15 cm, and the width should not be more than 60 cm. If the road surface does not comply with at least one standard, special services are required to post road signs. If there is damage in the dark or in conditions of insufficient visibility, road services are required to fence off the hole with a barrier, accompanied by warning signals.
In urban conditions, the period for repairing road damage is 5–10 days, depending on the size. Federal roads or highways must be repaired within no more than 5 days.
Where to contact
There are many services that accept citizens’ requests. These include government websites and online resources of activists.
City administration
The first way is to write an appeal to the local administration or the city improvement department. Go to the official website of the locality and find the “Appeals” section. Attach photographs to the letter and indicate the exact address of the problem area. You will have to wait approximately 33 days for a response: three days are required to register a request, and 30 are given for a response.
However, this is not the most effective way. They may write to you that the hole has not been found, there is no money, or repairs to this area are not planned.
Often officials don’t even try to lift a finger: they are accustomed to impunity, so no one does anything. Why fuss if you don’t face any consequences for inaction? And a person believes in a miracle that just one piece of paper will cause all officials to immediately rush to work. But that's not true.
Vladimir Kostrov
organizer of "RosYama Lipetsk"
Activist websites
It is more effective to write an appeal through activist services. One of the popular ones is “RosYama”.
It automatically generates a letter based on the data you enter and sends it to the traffic police. It is better to attach photographs to the application and mark on the map the place in question so that the inspection officer can find it. Before submitting information, you need to register on the site so that you can receive a response by email.
Before: broken road in the village of Nizhegorodka, Bashkortostan. rosyama.ru
After: the repaired road. rosyama.ru
In some cities there are communities of activists, for example, “Beautiful Petersburg”, “Beautiful Lipetsk”, “Beautiful Kirov”. On their websites you can complain not only about roads, but also about other problems: broken sidewalks, unauthorized dumping, or parking on the lawn.
The resource automatically generates a message and sends it to the responsible municipal authority, but not to the traffic police. And this is the downside: they may send you an unsubscribe.
If the appeal was effective and the road was repaired, change the status of the complaint on the website and brag about your success on social networks. The required work may not be done in the best possible way, but it is still a victory.
Before: there is no sidewalk, in the off-season people walk on mud. vk.com/lipetsk_krasiv
After: the sidewalk is made. vk.com/lipetsk_krasiv
Traffic police website
The traffic police monitors road safety, so the most effective way is to contact them directly.
This can be done through the official website. It doesn’t matter who owns it and where the road is located: in the yard, in a parking lot or on the main street of the city. After receiving the request, the traffic police officer checks whether there is a problem. If yes, he issues an order to the owner of the road for repairs. It must be completed within 1–14 days according to GOST. You can download application templates here; in the header, don’t forget to change the region to yours.
The traffic police website has a feature: you cannot paste copied text into the “Text of appeal” field. In this way, the department stops the mass sending of messages through copy-paste. We bypassed this system and began to attach the text of the appeal along with photographs in a Word document, and in the field itself write a short phrase: “Please consider my application (the application and photographs of the offense are attached in the files).” It is advisable to submit the appeal in Word 97–2003 format so that the traffic police can open and read it.
Vladimir Kostrov
If you see that somewhere there is no hatch or there are dangerous holes that could cause an accident, report them immediately by phone to the traffic police duty department so that the responsible employees can take action faster. Perhaps with this appeal you will prevent an accident or save someone’s life, and not only achieve road repairs.
What to do if you sent a reply, but the road was not repaired
Activists of the “Beautiful Lipetsk” movement have calculated that on average, problems are resolved in 20–25% of requests, and in other cases they receive excuses. The RosYama service gives approximately the same statistics. But this is not a reason to give up.
Step 1. Apply a second time
If the first letter did not work, write again. Involve neighbors, friends and colleagues - have everyone post a message about the problem. The more of them there are, the more likely it is that municipal authorities will begin to do something.
We take the second step and continue to apply until we receive the result. If you receive a reply, you send a second appeal to the traffic police and at the same time write to the prosecutor’s office. In 2021, I sent 140 applications and several dozen complaints, and in 2015 - more than 300.
Vladimir Kostrov
It is important that the traffic police work according to the law. The employee visiting the site must comply with the Administrative Regulations of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Flowchart of the execution of the state function not only to draw up an order to repair the problem area, but also to initiate a case of an administrative offense Article 12.34 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation. If this happens, the official faces a fine of 50-100 thousand rubles - this gives city authorities much more motivation to repair roads.
Step 2. Contact the prosecutor's office
If the hole is not removed and the traffic police does not initiate a case, you need to contact the prosecutor's office. She will file a claim in court, which will oblige the contractor to make repairs. However, this does not always work. Sometimes prosecutors do not want to spoil relations with city officials and try to hush up the problem.
Step 3. Write a complaint to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation and the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation
The last stage is a complaint to the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs about non-compliance with the law by traffic police officers or to the Russian Prosecutor's Office about the inaction of the regional prosecutor. The federal department forwards the first appeal to the regional level, so it may also not be effective. The second time the complaint will be considered - and then wait for the problem to be resolved.
Complaint from Lipetsk activists against traffic police officers in the Lipetsk region. After hundreds of such appeals, it was possible to initiate administrative cases. The amount of fines issued to road owners in 2018 amounted to 29.4 million rubles
What to remember
- Good roads are a requirement for road safety.
- Any road must be repaired within 1-14 days without any excuses.
- If you receive an unsubscribe, you need to resend requests until the problem is resolved.
- Silence is a sign of agreement with broken roads.
- It is worth involving friends and acquaintances in the matter. If at least 5% of motorists begin to demand order, then the traffic police will drown in mountains of paper. It will become easier for them to fix problems without waiting for calls.
Roads - maintenance, repair, supervision. Who is responsible
According to the Federal Law of November 8, 2007 No. 257-FZ “On highways and road activities in the Russian Federation and on amendments to certain legislative acts of the Russian Federation,” highways can be in federal ownership, the property of constituent entities of the Russian Federation, and municipal property , as well as owned by individuals or legal entities.
- federal property includes highways that are included in the list of public highways of federal significance or the list of non-public highways of federal significance, approved respectively by the Government of the Russian Federation and authorized federal executive authorities.
- The property of a constituent entity of the Russian Federation includes highways that are included in the list of public highways of regional or intermunicipal importance or the list of non-public highways of regional or intermunicipal significance, approved by the highest executive body of state power of the constituent entity of the Russian Federation.
- settlement property includes public and non-public roads within the boundaries of settlements, with the exception of federal, regional or intermunicipal highways, and private roads.
- The property of the urban district includes public and non-public highways within the boundaries of the urban district, with the exception of highways of federal, regional or intermunicipal importance, and private highways.
- The property of a municipal district includes public and non-public highways within the boundaries of the municipal district, with the exception of highways of federal, regional or intermunicipal significance, highways of local significance in settlements, and private highways.
- The property of individuals or legal entities includes highways built by individuals or legal entities at their own expense on land plots provided to such persons in the manner established by land legislation, or highways transferred into the ownership of such persons in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation.
Federal Law No. 196-FZ of December 10, 1995 “On Road Traffic Safety” establishes that the repair and maintenance of roads on the territory of the Russian Federation must ensure road safety.
The responsibility to ensure compliance of the condition of roads during their maintenance with established technical regulations and other regulatory documents rests with the persons carrying out the maintenance of highways.
According to Art. 210 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, the owner bears the burden of maintaining the property belonging to him, unless otherwise provided by law or contract. From the above it follows that the owners are responsible for the maintenance of highways (see Table 1 and Table 2). In the field of road activities, the Government of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation mainly carry out legal regulation of the use of highways and the implementation of road activities.
