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At the end of 2022, the Federal Audit Court (TCU) released a document entitled “List of High Risks of the Federal Public Administration” on Brazilian highways. Not only that, but it also delivered this material to the Government Transition Secretariat for coordination.
In a chapter on planning and prioritizing transport intermodality, the TCU finds that the various government transport planning instruments do not promote satisfactory modal integration on Brazilian highways.
A situation that undermines the rationalization of sectorial planning and public investment, due to planning failures, the fragility of integration and use of transport modes and inconsistent criteria for prioritizing projects and investments in the sector.
What is included in the report on Brazilian highways
In view of the regulation and supervision of road transport and railways, a lack of good management planning practices was found, manifested in incomplete works and, more seriously, in the signing of contractual amendments that included related investments not initially foreseen.
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To corroborate the problems pointed out by the TCU on Brazilian highways, it is worth mentioning that the National Transport Confederation (CNT), on behalf of its president and in an interview published in the newspaper CNT Transporte Atual, observed that there was a considerable deterioration in the quality of the road network in Brazil. Of the 110.333 kilometers assessed in 2022, more than half are problematic.
Since 1995, a strongly integrated CNT study has facilitated the evaluation of the following criteria: Pavement, Signaling, Track Geometry and Critical Points; for 2022 it identifies 55,5% (61.311 km) of extension in the characteristics of the pavement in normal, bad or very bad condition.
Brazilian highways have 60% bad asphalt
For the signaling project, 60,7% (66.985 km) were considered defective (normal, bad or bad), while for the road geometry this value corresponded to 63,9% (70.445 km).
In a worrying conclusion, the study of Brazilian highways points to the need to develop actions aimed at improving Brazilian highways. After all, more than 95% of passenger traffic and 65% of cargo transport in Brazil is carried out by road. The road is the main road in the country and needs more attention than the current road, otherwise the process of rebuilding and recovering the infrastructure will be more expensive and expensive.
With 65% of the goods technically determined by the CNT to circulate in the country by road, when analyzing the most common types of goods transported by road, it is clear that a large part of them is related to the flow of products originating in agribusiness. This fact is not by chance, since the sector is the most productive in the country.
Not only that, but despite all the techniques employed by the industry to correct, legalize and control the gross weight in loading and vessel operations, external factors make it difficult to control the weight per axle, such as heterogeneity and the high average age of the trucks across the country, Geometry and quality of the route used (verified by CNT), braking and acceleration of the vehicle during the journey, etc.
On the other hand, the position assumed by the MPF and ratified by the Judiciary exempts the State from any responsibility in this matter, which ends up being a disincentive to the inspection of convoys and road maintenance, which is serious and in clear conflict with several judgments of the TCU .
