The Development of Motor Roads in the USSR

Surfaced roads, including gravel roads, total 510,000 km, or 37.5 percent of the Soviet Union's motor-road net of 1.4 million kilometers, the rest consisting of dirt roads. Only about 260,000 km, or less than one-fifth, consists of blacktop or cement or asphalt concrete highways. The lack of roads tends to cause considerable losses to the Soviet economy, particularly in agriculture. An accelerated road-building program is therefore under way, with the current five-year plan (1971–75) calling for the construction or reconstruction of 110,000 km of improved surfaced roads (blacktop and cement or asphalt-concrete) compared with 75,000 km added in the preceding five-year period (1966–70). The densest road nets in the USSR are found in the Baltic republics, in Transcaucasia, Moldavia, the Ukraine and Belorussia. The lowest road-density indices apply to the Russian republic and to Kazakhstan.