09:00 09.11.2026
Pavement upgrades and new transport routes. Reporting on efforts to improve roads in Yakutia
© RIA Novosti / Ilya Naymushin
The Russian Arctic and Far East Development portal has recently launched its Complaints and Suggestions registry and has already received several submissions from our readers on various issues dealing with regions in the Russian Arctic and the Far East.
For instance, people living in remote districts of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) asked local officials to pay more attention to pavement quality in several locations within the region.
In this article, we discuss the concerns raised by people in Yakutia regarding road infrastructure, as well as efforts by the regional Government to ensure transport accessibility.
“On several roads across the region, long rains caused major traffic disruptions, even making vehicle access impossible in some cases,” people from the Nyurbinsky District wrote in their complaint about the poor condition of the road between the villages of Kirov to Chukar. Today, this is the only road connecting four communities in this district. It was noted that only 10 out of 30 kilometers of this road have benefited from upgrades, while the remaining 20 kilometers become impassable after rain or other weather calamities and can only be traversed with the help of a tractor.
In addition, local residents pointed out that sometimes road repairs do not go beyond offering temporary fixes. For example, road workers filled potholes with sand on the first kilometer of the Namtsyrsky Route, however, due to adverse weather conditions and heavy traffic, this road section quickly becomes unusable.
“There are heavy-duty trucks heading to the pits, as well as vehicles belonging to gas companies. Naturally, they are crashing the entire road surface,” one of the readers, a woman, wrote.
Another challenging section was reported on the Mukhtuya road between Lensk and Mirny, where cars are getting stuck after heavy rains. One reader said that regional officials have opted for building roads to serve the interests of industrial companies. There is, for example, the project to build the East Siberian Expressway from Mirny in Yakutia to the Taksimo railway station in Buryatia, running via Bodaido, Irkutsk Region, for transporting gold from Sukhoi Log, a major gold mine. In the reader’s view, such decisions suggest that the republic’s government does not prioritize the comfort of local residents.
Section of the A-360 Lena Road in Yakutia
© Ministry of Transport and Road Infrastructure of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia)
In its response, the press service of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) told us that the effort to develop regional road infrastructure was part of the Infrastructure for Life national project. As of the end of 2025, 86 percent of regional roads were up to the standard, and the upgrades continued in 2026, with the plan to launch about 94 kilometers of motor roads, including 75 kilometers of regional roads.
Several major projects are designed to develop the road network within a longer horizon. They include, among others, rebuilding 89 kilometers of pavement along the Mukhtuya road within the next several years for ensuring a better road link between Lensky and Mirninsky districts.
The press service also said that ensuring vehicle access to Yakutia’s Arctic districts required a special effort:
“Providing vehicle access in the Arctic and remote areas of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) means dealing with challenging natural conditions and climate, as well as geographical and logistical constraints.”
The main challenges for these districts include extreme cold, long winters, the fact that the soil stays frozen during a part of the year, and the spread of permafrost. Taken together, these factors make it harder to ensure proper road maintenance and use in the north, while also driving up maintenance costs.
Yakutia launched the Eastern Meridian project for improving vehicle access in the Arctic as well as upgrading its transport infrastructure.
“The project includes two stages. The first one provides for creating an extended-season winter road on three sections along Yana highway covering a total distance of 884.5 kilometers, while the second stage consists of building a fifth-category year-round road. The first stage is expected to be completed before 2030,” the press service pointed out.
Repairing a section of the Mukhtuya Motorway in Yakutia
© Ministry of Transport and Road Infrastructure of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia)
The department also said that a special approach must be used when designing, building and maintaining road sections with intensive heavy-duty truck traffic. The road bed must be reinforced when repairing and rebuilding these roads, and the pavement must be made from heavy-duty bituminous concrete.
The press service also shared information on measures to control traffic loads in Yakutia, which include installing weight and dimension control stations on the busiest roads within the region. Such stations have been set up on the kilometer 25-26 section of the Mukhtuya road, as well as on the kilometer 16+900 section of the Nam road, and on the kilometer 65+450 section of the Umnas road.
The press service of the regional government went on to list the principles for choosing roads that would benefit from repairs. Key criteria include the technical condition of the road, the route’s importance for sustaining the local population, traffic volume and the share of freight trucks on a specific section, as well as the route’s development potential and seasonal risks, including spring floods and other kinds of inundation.
“Based on these criteria, we draw up a list of priority sites and make sure to update it every year based on applications from our people, data submitted by municipalities and road network monitoring results,” the press service said.
Other major projects include rebuilding and repairing the Amga road, which is 106 kilometers long. Once the major overhaul on the section from the village of Nizhny Bestyakh to the village of Amga is completed, the laying of an asphalt-concrete pavement will begin.
The press service also mentioned the approach road to the village of Kangalassa as a major overhaul project, which has already been completed, to become an important step towards upgrading the Nam regional road.
Repairing a section of the Umnas road in Yakutia
© Ministry of Transport and Road Infrastructure of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia)
“There are plans for 2027-2028 period to rebuild the adjacent road section from kilometer 29+500 to kilometer 34+000 as a follow-up to the infrastructure development effort in this sector. This will enable us to ensure that the road pavement and other man-made structures on this key suburban route benefit from a comprehensive upgrade,” the press service went on to note.
The region has yet to address some of the challenges it faces in terms of its road infrastructure, but the Government of Yakutia is working hard to come up with both temporary fixes and lasting solutions.
