From May to September, the state will spend NOK 1,250 million on new asphalt on Norwegian national roads.
According to Minister of Transport Knut Arild Hareide (Krf), this will ensure a new top cover of ten percent of the national road network, and that the quality of the roads will be record high.
But the FRP believes the Minister of Transport should be careful not to brag about the investment. For the last 300 million, it was the opposition that provided.
– We have a total of 10,000 kilometers of national road, so ten percent of those roads will now have new asphalt from May to September in 2021, says Minister of Transport Knut Arild Hareide to TV 2.
TV 2 has reviewed the list of national road sections that receive new asphalt. The Minister of Transport and Communications believes it is 1,000 kilometers, but the exact figure in the overview is 854.4 kilometers, distributed over a total of 499 road sections.
Of the country’s regions, Viken has both the most kilometers of asphalting and the most road sections to be paved, with approximately 185 kilometers and 104 road sections.
The region with the lowest number of kilometers of new asphalt is Rogaland with approximately 28 kilometers, while Møre og Romsdal is the county with the lowest number of road sections to be asphalted, only 16.
But FRP’s transport policy spokesperson Bård Hoksrud is not impressed.
– MUSIC IN THE EARS: But FRP would rather have more money to go. Photo: Aage Aune / TV 2
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– 1.25 billion for asphalt is definitely music to my ears, but I think it is special that it is the government that takes the credit for the government really paving.
– If we had not put in place the last 300 million for the national roads, the decline would not have been stopped. We wanted 200 million more. The government did not want that, says Hoksrud.
New record
The asphalting this summer will bring the national road standard to a record high level. To date, just over 90 per cent of the national road network has maintained a satisfactory standard on the top deck. After the summer, this will increase to 93 percent.
– And that is probably a new record, says Hareide.
Hoksrud has looked through the entire list of bragging rights from the Ministry of Transport and the Norwegian Public Roads Administration. He believes many stretches deserved to be on the list.
– There is some asphalt on, for example, national road 41 in Telemark, but there are probably much larger parts of the stretch that should have had new asphalt, the FRP politician remarks, and thinks it is a bit funny that the government boasts of an initiative they had to be forced to implement and that Frp proposed an additional NOK 500 million for asphalt on national and county roads this year.
– ASPHALT WINNER: This section of Ring 3 in Oslo will have new asphalt. Photo: Aage Aune / TV 2
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– What the government uses now brings the road standard back to the same level as in 2016, when FRP sat with the Minister of Transport. But we still have a lot left on the national road network, says Hoksrud.
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