In recent years, the road industry of Kazakhstan has shown significant progress in the scientific and digital spheres. This year, the Minister of Transport of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Marat Karabayev, has repeatedly spoken about the problem of complex regulatory regulation in road construction and the need to create a competitive product in the transport sector. How this complex task is carried out the head of the Kazakhstan Road Research Institute Arman Alibayeva said to the correspondent of BaigeNews.kz.

-Arman Khalilolovna, earlier you spoke about the creation of a Unified Database of road construction materials and new technologies that can significantly improve the quality and speed of construction of domestic roads. Have you been able to implement all your stated plans?

-We launched the Unified Database project in pilot mode and I would like to say that the quality of the design, the speed of the program and, of course, the relevance of the data are at a fairly high level. We are actively filling it out - this year information has been added to it about 106 quarries from 8 regions of Kazakhstan, as well as 61 stone materials, 45 - sand, 51 - GSM, SGM, CSGSM and CSSM, 2 - bitumen, 1 - mineral powder. Let me remind you that the goal of the Unified Database project is the digitalization of all quarries and factories in the Republic of Kazakhstan that produce crushed-stone, sand, SGM, bitumen and other materials. Our users will have location, inventory and pricing data. One of the main advantages of the project is the fight against lobbying by manufacturers of road construction materials, as well as falsifications with their quality and availability. In 2023, we held 6 meetings of the Technical Council with the participation of road specialists from various organizations and added 75 new technologies and materials to the database. Of these, 29 were successfully tested and received “Green” status. Another 9 are at the testing stage on experimental plots with the status “Yellow”. 37 are currently undergoing laboratory testing and have a “Grey” status.

-How is the road regulations reform project progressing?

-In accordance with the state task, we plan to complete the processing of all regulatory documentation for the road industry of the Republic of Kazakhstan by the end of 2026. The Institute is working hard to make our regulatory framework more flexible for innovation. Work began in 2023. During this time, we analyzed the structures of standards in foreign countries with visits to China, the USA, the Russian Federation, Belarus, Asian and European countries. We also analyzed Kazakhstan technical documentation for conflicts of duplication and gaps. Today, out of about 1,200 regulatory documents, 48% have been revised and analyzed. Work is underway to update them. Work on revising the standards will continue next year. It should be noted that in the processing work, special attention is paid to updating existing and the possibility of parallel application of international standards using advanced technologies, which in turn will allow contractors to choose from the latest world technologies in the construction, reconstruction and repair of highways. For timely completion of work and a comprehensive approach to this issue, we attract highly qualified domestic specialists and industry experts.

-Last year you also talked about the possible creation of a bank of professional road workers, and “KazdorNII” specialists have repeatedly talked about the shortage of personnel. How is progress going in this direction?

-At the initiative of the institute, the Ministry of Transport did a lot of work together with the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, in connection with which it was decided to allocate 1000 grants for training in transport specialties. In addition, our minister Marat Karabayev achieved the division of construction areas in the training of students, since there was an acute shortage of personnel in the industry, which, according to our calculations, was approximately 10 times greater than the number of graduating students. The Institute created a database of professional road workers Jolshy. The institute’s website announced the collection of data on future and current road specialists - university graduates, engineers, craftsmen, designers, etc. Currently, work is underway to fill out and further integrate the database with platforms such as Enbek.kz and eLicense.kz so that the database of specialists would reflect personnel information (qualifications, work experience, certificates of advanced training courses, etc.), statistical data on the need road industry personnel, personnel selection for employers. Statistical data will enable government agencies to have real data on the needs of personnel in the industry, conduct analytical studies, and assess risks in order to take and implement the necessary measures. In addition, we actively conduct educational courses. In 2022, 152 specialists completed advanced training courses at the Competence Development Center of JSC KazdorNII, and in 2023 – 300 people. The number of listeners doubled, which was preceded by enormous organizational work. These include seminars, meetings with representatives of akimats, contractors, as well as a variety of courses and formats for conducting them. For the first time, we conducted on-site courses at the customer’s base, as well as directly at construction sites during construction work. The problem of the shortage of qualified personnel cannot be solved immediately, but this large and long-standing ice has begun to move.

-What significant events took place this year with the participation of your institute?

-I can say that the year went well. We have established cooperation with foreign partners, as previously reported. Representatives of the Jiangsu Transportation Institute came, where during the meeting we discussed the possibility of creating a Kazakh-Chinese research center in the field of transport and roads on the basis of KazdorNII. Our specialists visited road institutes in the United States, where, together with the University of Berkeley, we plan to conduct scientific work on the implementation of sensors to assess the operational properties of the road. If previously the institute conducted research on temperature and humidity conditions, now we want to introduce sensors by which it will be possible to determine the deformation of the road in advance and take preventive measures accordingly. It should be noted that we have almost completed the digital database of the Bridge Operation Management System. According to it, a unified database on bridges in the Republic of Kazakhstan has been created for 2023, and a new methodology for assessing their technical requirements has been developed. state, the existing supervision system was revised, instrumental surveys of complex extracurricular bridges were carried out, and the “Inventory and Survey” and “Reports” modules were introduced, which will greatly facilitate the analysis and preparation of reports. With the BOMS project, our users will not have problems preventing accidents on bridges. And this saves a lot of money for the republic. We were also involved in organizing the international scientific and practical conference “Crossroads of Innovation and Infrastructure: Formula for the Development of the Road Industry” at Kaztraffic-2023. We have established even closer ties with colleagues from Europe and Asia. For the first time in Kazakhstan, the National Committee of the World Road Association (PIARC) was created, in which we also took an active part. And, of course, the institute has completely completed its move to Astana, modernized the institute, updated the image component and internal content of KazdorNII. The composition of scientists has been updated, mainly there are more young people.

-What prospects do you see for KazdorNII next year?

-Our current situation is this: we are working closely on creating a new regulatory framework and industry qualification base, digitalizing our areas of activity, building scientific potential, organizing postdoctoral studies and updating the laboratory and technical base. In the future, our tasks include the introduction of scientific and technical support for new technologies, the development of international cooperation for the implementation of advanced standards, integration with the IS of government agencies, the development of institutional components (green road protection in CAREC, the development of a national transport model, the introduction of a system for recording accident concentration areas) and of course the search for sources of financing. I think we will continue to bring great benefits to the transport industry of Kazakhstan and will surprise those who follow our work more than once. The Institute works tirelessly and, I believe, in 2030 Kazakhstan will have not only an updated road base of standards, but also digital projects that will collect the most current data from our industry, which will significantly speed up, simplify and improve road construction.