Russia considers expanding concrete road construction to cut budget costs

Russia may begin large-scale construction of concrete highways as part of efforts to reduce budget expenditures, reviving an approach last widely used in the Soviet era until the 1980s.

Major cement producer “Cemros”, which operates 18 cement plants, is preparing to construct the first 45 sections of highways with cement-concrete pavement by the end of 2026, Caliber.Az reports, citing Russian media.

A study commissioned by the company estimates that the construction and maintenance of such roads could reduce consolidated state budget costs by 29.69%, saving about 573.2 billion rubles ($6.4 billion) over the next 11 years.

The Russian government began reviewing the use of such road technologies in 2025.

First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov instructed the Transport Ministry and Finance Ministry, together with the Soyuzcement association, to assess the economic efficiency of cement-concrete road construction.

At the same time, the Construction Ministry approved a regulation setting cost benchmarks for different types of road surfaces, indicating that asphalt roads are 9–11% more expensive per kilometre than cement-concrete ones.

According to the Financial University under the Government of Russia, cement-concrete roads currently account for about 2% of the country’s road network (around 1,300 km).

By comparison, the United States has about 26,600 km of such highways (24.6% of its road network), while China has around 90,000 km (47.2%).

“Countries that have long faced intensive freight traffic have chosen rigid pavements,” said Denis Nazarov, procurement and logistics director at Cemros.

He added that repeatedly repairing asphalt roads and closing traffic “while losing billions” is no longer justified, arguing that a shift to rigid pavement should become a political and economic priority.

However, Russia’s Federal Road Agency (Rosavtodor) has questioned the durability of cement-concrete roads.

The agency made it clear that such surfaces are exposed to multiple factors during operation that significantly reduce their performance, including studded tyres, which can cause rutting, potholes, and loss of smoothness.

As a result, studded tyres are banned on cement-concrete roads in about 20 EU countries and in the United States.

Rosavtodor also warned that temperature fluctuations, freezing, and moisture lead to thermal stress, cracking, and gradual structural degradation, noting that these effects are especially pronounced in Russia’s climate.

Georgy Ostapkovich, scientific director of the Centre for Conjunctural Research at the Higher School of Economics, said concrete is a “technically complex material for Russian conditions” and that repairing such roads would be more difficult than asphalt because slabs would need to be fully replaced.

He also noted that the initiative could support the cement industry amid a downturn in the construction sector.

Earlier, the Russian government reduced spending on federal road construction and repair by 11 billion rubles this year and by 20 billion rubles next year amid a widening budget deficit.

Overall funding for the six-year road development plan will be cut by 100 billion rubles to 9.1 trillion rubles.

The Federal Road Agency’s budget will also decrease by more than 20 billion rubles to 188.8 billion rubles.

By Bakhtiyar Abbasov