Response to interpellation 2022/23:206 on the maintenance of winter roads
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
KD argues that a well-functioning infrastructure is important for transport supply, accessibility, and traffic safety 1. KD emphasizes that the government prioritizes maintenance over new investments due to a long-standing maintenance debt 2 and that new rules in the traffic ordinance shall improve the conditions for handling slippery road conditions 3. KD works towards a zero vision when it comes to road and traffic safety work 4 and considers it important for the business sector to be able to compete on equal terms 4. SD argues that winter road maintenance is poor, that accidents are increasing 5 6 and that the uneven winter road maintenance is a serious safety problem 7. SD argues that the social cost for traffic stops is high 5 7.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Statsrådet Andreas Carlson (KD)
Mr. Speaker! Thomas Morell has asked me what measures I intend to take to ensure an acceptable level of maintenance of the country's winter roads.
A well-functioning infrastructure is important to ensure a long-term sustainable transport supply for the citizens and the business community throughout the country. It is of great importance that the winter road maintenance of the roads maintains a high quality. It is significant for both accessibility and traffic safety.
Trafikverket has the government's mandate to be responsible for winter road maintenance on the state roads and has developed requirements for what shall apply for the implementation. The requirements vary depending on road type and traffic volume, but they apply equally in all parts of the country.
Trafikverket procures the execution of winter road maintenance from contractors. In order to follow up on the activities and ensure that requirements for execution are met, Trafikverket has developed modern methods and working procedures. Among other things, GPS is used in the vehicles, which makes it possible to monitor the work performed at a detailed level. Trafikverket also hires a third party who follows the contractors' performed work and verifies that the interventions both start and are completed at the right time and with the right quality. It is important to ensure that the contractors fulfill their commitments.
The Riksdag and the government have decided on economic frameworks that create the conditions for Trafikverket to carry out the assignment. During 2023, more than 14 billion kronor are allocated for the operation and maintenance of the state roads. This creates the conditions to carry out necessary winter road maintenance.
Thomas Morell (SD)
Mr. Speaker! Thank you for the answer, Minister! This matter of maintenance of our winter roads is something we have discussed a number of times with the previous government. The current Minister has inherited the situation we have on the roads.
Unfortunately, we see an increase in traffic accidents, and it is worrying in many ways. But it is not only the accidents that are a concern when traffic comes to a standstill. I spoke with a trucking company yesterday. When their trucks are stationary waiting for the road to be opened because it has not been plowed or salted, the hourly cost for the trucking company is somewhere between 1,300 and 1,500 kronor per hour. And an additional concern arises, because if the truck does not reach its unloading site, the problem is moved to the next day. The truck and the driver are left standing and thus do not perform their work task as intended that day, and then the trucking company can end up in a situation where they have to pay a fine because they have not delivered on time.
If you look at the total cost - these are old figures; I tried to get the Riksdag's investigation service to calculate what it costs when there is a traffic jam - I have data from an article in Motormagasinet from 2015. There it says that if there is a traffic jam in Stockholm traffic - now Sweden consists of more than just Stockholm, but this was the figure I could find - the societal cost is 360,000 kronor per hour. These are, therefore, figures from 2015, and it surely is not cheaper today. I do not think so.
The magazine Trailer has followed up on this regarding winter road maintenance recently. Trailer is a magazine for the industry. There, they have had a number of articles. It states there that Trafikverket is trying to obscure the winter road maintenance. Let me quote a bit of what is written in the article:
"A class 1 road must be non-slippery at the latest 2 hours after precipitation and in this case the salt truck was out until 08.00 when the precipitation ended at 02.30. That is 5.5 hours after the precipitation. - - - The salt dose that has been noted is 15 grams of solution. This means approximately 3.3 grams of salt per square meter. If the road is wet/moist after precipitation, corresponding to the 0.2 millimeters of rain that came, it means 200 grams of water per square meter. This results in a fairly heavy dilution of an already small salt dose."
This is what drivers and transport companies testify to. It becomes so slippery that you can skate on your shoes on the road. I had a number of debates with the former Minister for Infrastructure, Tomas Eneroth, regarding this. He claimed that it was modern technology that handled the maintenance of winter roads and that one could monitor the vehicles in such a way that one could effectively combat the slipperiness. But everyone who is out there on the road testifies that it has become worse in recent years. It is so slippery that you skate on your shoes. Trafikverket then says that one must adjust the speed. But everyone knows that when you stop with a heavy vehicle because you cannot move forward, you slide off the road. That is how slippery it is.
Statsrådet Andreas Carlson (KD)
Mr. Speaker! I would first like to thank Thomas Morell for an important interpellation. This is not the first time that Thomas Morell has shed light on this important issue, on traffic safety and also on companies' competitiveness and the possibility of conducting business. This is indeed what it actually is about when so many factories and industries have a large part of their stock on the roads. They are directly affected if there are stoppages in traffic.
What I want to emphasize above all, however, are the very tragic and horrific accidents with fatal outcomes. They must be combated, and it must be done with all possible force.
I want to thank Morell for his commitment to this over many years. The member also has great experience and competence in these issues and has worked with this for a long time. I also place great value on the conversations we have between the coalition parties when it comes to these and many other issues.
Before this winter, changed rules and amendments to the traffic ordinance have been introduced to ensure that vehicles have sufficient pressure on the driving axles and thereby improve the conditions for them to handle slippery road conditions. This aims, among other things, to prevent the problems that have occurred with so-called EU-trailers, which in slippery road conditions easily fold in the middle like a folding knife. This is something that we are also following up on. This affects the situation more broadly and perhaps not just the specific cases that Morell highlights.
It is about having requirements that constantly highlight and reward road safety and competitiveness. Today, we see unhealthy competition in the trucking industry. Those who behave themselves and make large investments naturally need to be compensated for this in the final invoice to the customer, and they are currently competing with companies that have not in all parts followed the same standards as the responsible companies. The new requirements aim to meet this.
When it comes to the specific situation, it is Trafikverket that has responsibility for winter road maintenance. They also have the responsibility to procure the execution through the contractors who are out and are to manage the winter road maintenance. The member refers back to the previous government, and then it is precisely about the methods that exist to ensure that the contractors live up to their requirements. They are modern and are based on GPS technology and so on.
However, one needs to look closer at the issue, not least considering the situation that often arises when it is around zero degrees and it keeps melting and freezing. The salt can disappear, and one then gets the extreme slipperiness that Morell describes. Many people report that you can almost skate on the roads.
It was quite a long time since anyone outside looked closer at this. There is some report from 2011. Now Trafikverket is working on this continuously. As Minister, I assume of course that the agency responsible for the issue is constantly working to develop its methods.
I will also say that we at the department are looking at the issue to see how we could further strengthen the work in this regard. But with that said, I also want to say that Trafikverket is looking at the issue. The Government and the Riksdag have decided on the economic frameworks that shall create the conditions for Trafikverket to also carry out the mandate it has.
Thomas Morell (SD)
Mr. Speaker! Time flies. One wants to say a lot, but time is running out.
I will stick to the articles in the newspaper Trailers. The editorial writes as follows: "Trafikverket's winter road maintenance is an example of this" – meaning that it does not work. "It works poorly now, yes, miserably! We taxpayers have to pay for services that in some cases are simply not performed. [- - -] And even worse, our professional drivers risk life and limb when they are forced to work on poorly maintained roads. [- - -] When Trafikverket does not do its job, does not take its responsibility, yes, then the country's professional drivers suffer directly. They are forced to work under life-threatening conditions. Working from home when SMHI issues its weather warnings is no option for truck drivers and many others with them. No, they are then forced to drive on icy roads. Because someone else has not done their job."
I have discussed this both with the former Minister for Infrastructure and with the current Minister. We have had conversations regarding this, and I feel confident that there is an ambition to really do something about it. I truly hope so, otherwise we will meet here a few more times during the mandate period.
In his answer, the Minister states that one leans on modern technology. It was approximately the same wording that the previous Minister for Infrastructure had. But it is also a method that Trafikverket uses to brake the interventions. I have many friends within the trucking industry who are on call and perform maintenance on the roads. They are not allowed to go out, even though they themselves know that it is very slippery on the road. Those who know their colleagues also call those who are responsible for the road and say that now you must go out, because it is really slippery. But one is not allowed to go out, because the person on duty has not given them permission. If one still goes out and performs an intervention, one does not get paid. The GPS equipment says that now the truck is out, but one has not received the clear signal.
In the same way, those who drive these cars know that the road often freezes in certain sections. It can be depressions, it can be dirt curves. Then one also knows that here the salt application must be increased for it to have an effect. If one does that, the same situation arises; then one does not get paid either.
This is what becomes so crazy when Trafikverket trusts the meteorologist standing in the ditch: if the meteorologist hasn't woken up, the measures are not implemented, and the people who do the work out there and who have extensive experience when it comes to how to handle that specific road district they are on themselves are forced to stay home.
It is here that such a terrible imbalance occurs. One does not let the one who has the professional expertise actually go out and deploy measures when it is about to become really slippery. Instead, the measures are deployed far too late. In the worst case, someone dies because of this. Someone loses their life because Trafikverket does not release the resources needed to combat the slipperiness.
We cannot have it this way. There must be a clear change. I look forward to future dialogues with the Minister. We must reach a solution so that it does not become the same next winter as the winters we have experienced in recent years.
Statsrådet Andreas Carlson (KD)
Mr. Speaker! Regarding the various tasks that the newspaper Trailer reports on, I cannot go into them in detail. But I have taken note of them, and I have also had the situation described to me by drivers. This is also a work environment issue for those who drive on the roads.
It is also important that this type of task is supplemented with additional tasks, and Trafikverket already today carries out very thorough accident investigations regarding serious accidents to obtain the correct facts in order to be able to take corrective measures. It is important that lessons are drawn from the very tragic and terrible accidents. A fatal accident is obviously one too many, and at every such occasion, one must ensure that a very solid and thorough investigation is conducted to see what needs to be changed so that one does not end up there again.
I assume that Trafikverket will do this, and of course, we have a dialogue with the authority. They conduct these types of accident investigations in every serious accident, and this also needs to be guiding in the work moving forward to increase road safety and ensure that we get the situation under control.
When it comes to weather conditions where the temperature fluctuates around zero degrees and it is raining, there are challenges with ice control. The rain washes away road salt, and refreezing can occur. Often, supercooled rain also occurs, which freezes on cold road surfaces. This is a reality today that more and more people are witnessing. This was described the other day in a newspaper article in Dagens Nyheter, and on the same page, I also described the government's priorities regarding precisely the maintenance of roads.
To broaden the question a bit further, the winter road maintenance is, of course, complicated by the fact that we have such a very poor standard on our roads today. We have a maintenance debt that has accumulated over a very long period, and that is why the government has prioritized maintenance over new investments in projects that we actually cannot afford. Facts can be double-checked, but someone told me that it was the first time that the word "maintenance" appeared in a government statement in connection with infrastructure, roads, and railways.
It is therefore a priority for the government to get the maintenance of the secondary road network in order as well. There, of course, winter road maintenance is also an important part, as many of our roads are winter roads during this time of year.
We therefore have reason to return to the issue. As I said, the department is looking into precisely those questions that Thomas Morell has raised today, and I look forward to returning both here in the chamber and in the dialogue that we have with the coalition parties.
Thomas Morell (SD)
Mr. Speaker! I will conclude with a description from a friend, straight from reality. He is as old as I am, so he has been driving since the mid-70s and has long experience. He wrote as follows:
Stopped at Rasta in Falköping around 14.30. Started again 15.15. Coming about two and a half kilometers. Total stop for one hour. The police are letting passenger cars through in rounds. From where we stood - Falevi outside Falköping - to the road in to Floby at Ullene, there were about 50 trucks and at least as many passenger cars. Was released in Tråvad 17.30. During this time we had not seen a single snowplow, and there was 20-30 centimeters of snow on riksväg 46 and 47.
Another important part, like the core of the entire discussion, is this from the newspaper Trailer: "After the recent slippery road accidents, we have received very many comments from drivers across the country. Since our criticism primarily concerns the winter road maintenance on the most important class 1 roads, we have chosen to speak with a trucking company that drives from south to north."
"If any part of the industry had such a large safety problem as we have with the uneven winter road conditions, the safety representative would have shut down the operations in a minute," says Kenth Svensson, who runs the trucking company.
This is extremely serious, as people are being put in danger. Trucking companies are hit by large costs when operations come to a standstill. Society is hit by large costs when important infrastructure does not function. These costs must be taken into account.
Another important part that cannot be measured in money is human lives. It is extremely important that we can save lives in traffic.
Statsrådet Andreas Carlson (KD)
Mr. Speaker! Thomas Morell returns to the most important question at the end: It is about human lives. We have a zero vision that we are working to achieve. We make significant efforts in many areas and have done so for a long time when it comes to specifically road and traffic safety work, and every part is of course important. Maintenance and winter road maintenance are no exceptions, and that is why I have also informed the Chamber today that the department is looking into the issue and intends to return.
I would like to thank you again for the commitment to this issue over a long period. We expect that it will continue for a long time to come, Mr. Speaker, so that we can ensure even safer roads. It is something that is of course important in itself, but it is also important for the business community to be able to compete on equal terms and to have a good working environment for the many people who work on our roads day and night, year in and year out.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.