Low investment in highways leads to major losses in Brazil

Brazil's expenditures arising from road accidents totaled $7.1 billion in 2013. In terms of environment, if all highways could be classified as good or great, the country could have spared 737 million liters of diesel fuel—the equivalent of $722 million. The nation would also have cut carbon dioxide emissions by 1.96 million tons.

All this financial and environmental impact derive considerably from the poor quality of Brazilian roads, according to the National Transport Confederation (CNT), which published on Thursday (Oct 16) its 2014 Highway Survey. Of the country's entire network, the extension of federal, state, and municipal highways covered by the study adds up to 98,475 km.

“Road transport is the key promoter of national development and integration. Over 60% of Brazilian products are conveyed through this means. In it, however, there is a track history of low investments and planning difficulties,” said CNT Executive Director Bruno Batista.

Batista further informed that there has been a slight improvement of 1.7% from last year in the length of highways classified as good or great. In his view, a large number of critical points and signs of wear and tear are still observed which have led to the death of over 8 thousand people in 2013. Among the reasons are the increase in the amount of vehicles and the scarce investment. “It is worrying that the government is unable to invest all amounts authorized for the highways. This is comes as a result of  administrative and management difficulties,” he noted.

Paving, signage and geometry

CNT's research surveyed the general state of the roads, as well as their paving  and the signs placed along them. As for their overall conditions, 37.9% of highways were seen to be great or good, 38.2% satisfactory; 17% were considered poor, and 6.9% terrible.

With respect to paving, CNT found out that 50.1% of the roads could be regarded as great or good, 36.7% had satisfactory paving,” Batista stated. The proportion of bad or terrible ones  stands at 13.2%.

Signage, in turn, was labeled great or good in 42.6% of the cases, and satisfactory in 32.2%. Poor and terrible reached 25.2%. In 82.3% of highways, the visibility of signs was not hindered by overgrown vegetation, which did completely cover the signs in 8.7% of the roads, and partly in 5.4%.

When geometry was analyzed—which takes into consideration such elements as the type of the road, the existence and the state of additional lanes for ascent, perilous turns, bridges and overpasses—22.1% were assessed as good or great, 29% satisfactory, and 48.6% poor or terrible.

Within the coverage of CNT's probe, highways handed over to the private enterprise presented much better results than those under public management. Whereas only 29.3% of government-owned roads had their overall state evaluated as good or great, this figure mounts to 74.1% for those under concessions. Likewise, with regard to paving, 43.1% of publicly administered roads were considered good or great. Its private counterpart climbs to 79.5%.

CNT also reported that 34.7% of the signing on public roads were labeled good or great, compared to a private equivalent of 75.7%. As for geometry, good or great account for 17.7% of roads under the government, and 40.3% of licensed ones.

Brazil's highway network encompasses 1.7 million km. Only 12% of these, however, are paved. This represents 203.5 thousand km—65.9 thousand of which belong to federal roads, 110.8 thousand to state roads, and 26.8 thousand in municipal roads.

Translated by Fabrício Ferreira