Penza, 25 October 2015. PenzaNews. The activists of the All-Russian People’s Front (APF), headed by Alexander Vasilyev, State Duma deputy, head of the APF inspection group “Rate Road Quality!” evaluated the current status of roads in Penza.

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Their list of simple instruments of evaluation included a tape measure and a 60*15*5 cm wooden block that represents the three threshold dimensions of a pothole in need of repair.

The inspection focused on the roads repaired in 2012-2014 with guarantee service still provided. The activists requested a list of these roads in the Penza city administration; however, they also compiled their own using open sources, including the government procurement website, before the official reply.

Based on the results of their analysis, the guarantee period for the Penza roads repaired in 2013 is 3 years. According to the APF activists, this is insufficient, as the guarantee period just of the outermost layer of truck-favored federal highways is 4 years.

Moreover, the activists presented their general evaluation of status of the Penza roads, travel safety in school zones, and traffic accessibility of medical institutions.

In particular, they detected multiple potholes and sinked manholes on Dzerzhinskovo street, and a general lack of repairs except for several small sections, such as the one located by the apartment building No. 35.

Sinked and raised manholes were also located on Suvorova street. In addition, activist inspectors pointed out that the road has multiple bumps.

“It is a distinct feature of Penza roads: they have a lot of bumps. We see a location completed in 2014, but the road is far from being straight like a ruler with no irregularities,” Alexander Vasilyev pointed out.

“I would advise your officials to visit Saransk and inspect their roads,” he added in a post-inspection comment for the press.

According to him, Saransk is one of the cities that incited the least complaints after an APF road inspection.

The APF inspection results in Penza will be summarized in a report that will be submitted to the Penza city hall and the monitoring bodies in the nearest future.

Moreover, it will be presented to local APF activists with an objective to monitor the post-report measures to enforce additional corrections of poorly-made repairs at the expense of negligent subcontractors.

In addition, Alexander Vasilyev called for Penza citizens to take part in the country-wide contest to measure and photograph the largest pothole they know, with a common object nearby for scale, and send it to their regional committee, with date, place and dimensions attached.

The contest will conclude in spring of 2016.