PEOPLE IN THE KNOW: Heating, Water and Pipes

How much does the city spend on the housing and utilities sector?

If we’re talking about the total budget for the sector spent by the municipal services directorate, it amounts to about 80 billion rubles per year. This includes expenditure on transport, heating supplies – on operations of all the structural units included in the sector. This also includes the city’s compensation for the difference in energy tariffs and subsidies.

Is road construction also included?

Road construction, in what concerns major repairs, maintenance, and the repair of bridges is financed from that amount. But new construction projects, such as the Third Ring Road, new highways and highway junctions, are financed separately.

When do you plan to launch the construction of the Fourth Ring Road?

We plan to begin in 2005. The total length of the road will be 61 kilometers. We will start with the building of a 16-km stretch from Volgogradsky Prospekt to Otkrytoye Shosse.

What other construction projects are planned for the near future?

Within the next couple of years we plan to build Krasnopresnensky Prospekt, which will complete the formation of the Third Ring; the Sheremetyevskaya highway junction (a tunnel under Sushchyovsky Val at the intersection with Sheremetyevskaya Ulitsa), and a junction at the intersection of Leningradsky Prospekt and Begovaya Ulitsa.

Work to widen Kiyevskoye Shosse will begin on the section up to the 37th kilometer, the modernization of Borovskoye Shosse and the linking Kiyevskoye Shosse with the Moscow Ring Road, will also begin.

In 2005 routes along several sections of the Big Third Ring will begin. Documents to the effect have already been drawn up. According to the schedule, before 2010 some 150 kilometers of new roads are to be built and another 126 kilometers will undergo reconstruction.

At the end of May many residents of the western district protested against the construction of Krasnopresnensky Prospekt. Don’t you think their protests were substantiated?

Unfortunately, in their deeds and thoughts people are often guided by selfish motives. As a rule, people directly affected by the beginning of some new construction projects are guided namely by such selfish principles. And they ignore or fail to see the benefits the new roads will bring. And there are benefits: for the city environment, for all the 10 million Muscovites who live in the capital. And also for the residents of those two or three houses, which happen to be located close to the construction site. Unfortunately, certain media rush to create a scandal out of those cases.

But don’t you think that quite often such protests are fuelled by companies who lease land within the zone of construction and are not interested in leaving their plots?

You are right. Those kind of ‘initiators’ often stand at the root of conflicts. As regards the interests of the parties that find themselves involved in such conflicts, I would rather not draw any conclusions.

As for Krasnopresnensky Prospekt, all I can say is that the project was agreed upon. It took a long time to adjust it, it underwent expert environmental examination both on the municipal and the federal level, and the route and the plans for bridge construction were revised many times.

We sought the optimal variant of construction and, I think, the solution was found. Also, the plans for the construction of a metro station has been worked out, so as not to begin a new project on the same site and not to destroy the existing natural landscape.

In spring [Moscow Mayor] Yuri Luzhkov called for the introduction of certain economic sanctions on car owners who use studded tires, alleging that they damage the roads.

It is no allegation, it is true.

But then another city official said that road-builders themselves were to blame for the poor quality of road surfaces in Moscow, as they make the asphalt layer thinner than they used to before and than it is necessary.

Nothing has changed and all the technical requirements are observed. Take the Moscow Ring Road, or the Third Ring. Those highways experience high traffic loads, though repair work on the Moscow Ring Road are now being carried out only on the oldest sections, built back in the mid 90s, on the stretch between the 21st and the 57th kilometers.

The road surface has not been changed on that section all these years?

Of, course not! On that road we used new materials. The highway was used for five years, which is a long period, given our climate and traffic load.

And the asphalt coat there, as you understand, is much thicker than 5 cm! Another example is Kiyevskoye Shosse, a state-of-the-art highway where the new surface was laid two years ago. So far it is still intact, though on some sections the road is already rutted.

The problem of our roads is not in the thickness of the asphalt layer but in the great variety of tires used in cars. In the West it is strictly defined in which season which type of tires is to be used. We do not have such rules yet.

Modern foreign-made cars with high-volume engines are often equipped with tires, that have rigid traction with the road.

And what happens in summer is the asphalt layer becomes soft. And, naturally, using such tires with studs – also considering the high revolutions when foreign cars set off, which are much higher than in our Moskvich and Lada cars – destroy the surface, it becomes rutted, and that rut goes even deeper in winter. Motorists will have seen those ruts, mostly, in the left lane, at intersections, before traffic lights.

What kind of sanctions will be imposed on car owners that use tires that are detrimental to the surface?

To begin with, it is necessary to introduce rules and provisions regulating the usage of various types of tires. And then stipulations in the Administrative Code for certain punitive measures against violators. The city government is working on a draft bill on introducing seasonal restrictions on using studded tires that is to be forwarded to the Moscow City Duma.

Maybe, the main problem is not in the tires and studs, but in the increasing load on the city roads?

This, certainly, affects the condition of roads.

How far, do you think, the development of the road network is falling behind the growing amount of traffic?

It is not falling behind. It was well behind in previous years. Today the shortage of roads in the city is about 300 kilometers. Yet, today road construction is proceeding at a very high rate. If such construction had been carried out 10 or 20 years ago, today instead of having to design and lay roads from the beginning, we would have been able to focus on modernizing and upgrading the existing highways.

In line with the plans, by 2020 the total length of Moscow’s roads is to reach 5,900 kilometers. The volume of construction could have been even higher had the means of the road fund not been taken away from the city over the past two years. But today all efforts are being applied to ease the load on the most difficult sections of the road network.

The number of cars in the city is growing at a clearly unpredictable rate. For instance, the maximum projected capacity of the Third Ring Road had been expected to be 5,000 per hour; today at rush hours it already exceeds 6,000 – 7,000 cars.

Are the underground water and heating supply networks deteriorating just as unpredictably?

Here the picture is not as deplorable. Wear and tear of the heating networks (including those of Mosenergo, Moscow’s energy supplier) in Moscow amounts to only 16 percent.

Why are new technologies and materials still not being widely used when heating and water supply pipes are laid in Moscow?

Replacing old pipes with new ones must be done in unison. It is impossible to substitute a section of 200-300 meters, leaving tens of kilometers of old pipes on other sections.

With polyethylene pipes on some sections and metal pipes on others, they would not match. And today networks in some micro-districts of Moscow are being replaced in full. Pipes with foamed polyurethane insulation and so-called cross-linked polyethylene account for 90 percent of the total volume of pipes laid by municipal organizations.

Does that mean that in the areas where networks are not being replaced in full as in micro-districts and where only certain sections are being repaired, worn pipes are still being replaced with the same old metal pipes and not with the modern polyethylene pipes?

In the areas where networks are being replaced in full modern pipes are being laid; and the sections being repaired have metal pipes laid.

And how long can polyethylene pipes work before repairs? Would it be possible to stop the practice of switching off hot water supplies to Muscovites’ apartments in summer?

We believe that the modern sections designed in line with new technology will not need to be repaired at all, and water supplies will not have to be interrupted for at least 50 years.

For instance, the hot water supply to South Butovo, a new micro-district where polyethylene pipes were installed when it was built, has not been switched off for five years now.

Still, those pipes, too, require regular checks and maintenance, since the condition of the pipes depends not only on the materials they are made of, but also on the environment where those pipes are laid.

In how many districts have the modern pipes been installed?

Three micro-districts are fully equipped with them. This summer the hot water supply will not be switched off in 253 buildings in South Butovo, 142 houses in Lyublino and 80 houses in Penyagino. This is not much, considering that there are over 4,000 residential and non-residential buildings in Moscow.

Who finances the replacement of the pipe networks?

Funds for replacing pipelines are not included in the budget. Budget means are used for laying networks only in new residential areas. Investors who participate and win tenders for housing construction make special payments to the budget.

…And if the networks are replaced in the old micro-districts?

In such areas the networks are replaced and repaired at the expense of organizations operating those networks. They pay for repairs from the means they collect from residents as payment for their services. They are not able to replace those networks faster and on a larger scale, as their means are limited.

Operational companies (providing residents with public utilities) charge residents and enterprises for their services at certain rates that cannot be increased to the required level as the Federal Energy Commission sets the limits on those rates. Therefore, the amount collected is used for capital and routine repairs during preparation for the new heating season.

What kind of subsidies do those organizations receive from the city budget?

The budget covers the difference between the actual cost of services and the rates set for the residents. The total volume of budget subsidies to the housing and utilities sector now stands at 6.5 billion rubles.

When will Moscow apartments be equipped with hot and cold water meters?

I am certain that this is inevitable. This is sure to happen. But the installation of meters is a project to be financed not by the city budget but by the apartment owners themselves.

Our task is to install meters to register the overall consumption of water in a building, making it possible for its occupants to pay their bills in line with its reading.

That plan is to be implemented within two years, whereby hot and cold water and heating meters will be installed in Moscow’s residential blocks.

Hopefully, in 2005 all municipally-owned houses will be equipped with meters and payments will be calculated on the basis of their readings. And if some tenant wishes to install a meter in his apartment he has a right to do so.

Does that mean it is no use waiting for the city to pay for the installation of meters in every flat, and as of today apartment owners and tenants can begin installing meters themselves at their own expense?

Of course. There is no problem with that, as long as a meter is installed by a company that has the proper license.

How many privately-owned and municipally-owned operational organizations are there in the capital?

Privately-owned companies are, for the most part, service condominiums, cooperative building societies and youth housing cooperatives.

The share of state-owned and municipally-owned operational companies make up some 85 percent; privately-owned enterprises make up 15 percent accordingly. Most houses are still run by directorates for the exploitation of buildings (DEZ), which prevail in the housing sector.

Private companies are still not very active in managing residential and commercial real estate; they render services amounting to 46 million rubles per year.

How effective are privately-owned operational companies?

I cannot evaluate their economic effectiveness. They are independent companies and the authorities have no right to interfere, control and assess their operations. Private companies report only to those who pay them, and to that end hire auditors. But one thing is evident to me – their performance, considering the quality of the residential space they service, its technical condition and exploitation, its durability, cannot even be compared with that of the municipal operational services that constantly arouse censure.