Government of Minas Gerais promotes preventive and corrective maintenance on the almost 5 thousand kilometers of the state’s unpaved road network – Department of Highways of the State of Minas Gerais

05/02/2024

With the beginning of the drought period, the Government of Minas Gerais, through the Department of Highways of Minas Gerais (DER-MG), initiated a series of actions focused on improving unpaved state roads. There are almost 5 thousand kilometers of these highways, which represent around 20% of the entire state road network.

To be able to conserve and maintain so many roads, DER-MG has a work schedule that is carried out by the agency’s 40 Regional Units (URGs) and covers the entire territory of Minas Gerais.

In addition to taking care of the primary coating network, the department maintains almost 20 thousand kilometers of paved highways. Together – paved and unpaved – total 25 thousand kilometers that help to integrate Brazil.

The general director of DER-MG, Rodrigo Tavares, explains that excess load on vehicles, together with rainwater, greatly harms the useful life of this type of road and the dry season is conducive to corrective and preventive maintenance. .

“The maintenance of our unpaved network will be better worked and maintained, especially because the resource contribution for this year is greater than previous years, due to the new conservation and maintenance contracts that are coming into force”, explains Tavares.

He reveals that almost half a billion reais will be invested in 2024, in maintenance, conservation and elimination of critical points on the entire Minas Gerais highway network. The value is four times higher than what was practiced in other years. “In addition, we have functional recovery and paving works through Provias, whose resources amount to R$4 billion throughout the program,” he adds.

“One of the bases of our State’s economy is agribusiness and much of what we produce is in regions with sections of unpaved highways. Therefore, this work is constant to maintain the trafficability of the highways, essential for the flow of production. It is also important to highlight the integration between districts and municipalities”, ponders the general director of DER-MG.

Those who travel daily on highways undergoing maintenance can already feel the results of the services. This is the case of Leandro Henrique Barcelos, manager of an agribusiness company located on the banks of LMG-743, in Alto Paranaíba. Leandro runs a feed factory, confines 15 thousand heads of cattle and has a daily production of eight thousand liters of milk, in addition to other businesses of the company he manages.

According to him, the maintenance and conservation works that are being carried out are making a big difference in the flow of production. “In the area of ​​influence of the highway we have more than 400 producers who depend on the good conditions of the highway to transport their products to consumers”, he highlights.

“We spent a period of rain with great difficulty with our 15 trucks that circulate daily LMG-743. A three kilometer route, we had to turn around a lot due to traffic conditions. Now, with this DER-MG service, the situation has improved. The next step is to hope for paving”, he adds.

The 24.3 kilometers already receive track maintenance with patrolling services to later be grounded, between Major Porto and Quintinos.

Services on the unpaved network

On unpaved highways, the services mainly include the mechanical reconstitution of the platform, popularly known as patrolling because of equipment that was often used to perform the service. In addition, the sections receive primary coating, lateral cleaning of vegetation, mechanical excavation of drainage ditches, trench compaction and installation of metal culverts at specific points.

To carry out the services, DER-MG has workers and machinery to leave the track leveled and leveled using a compressor roller that compacts the soil, by compressing the soil and earth.

Statewide maintenance

A good example of DER-MG’s performance comes from the Northwest region of Minas Gerais with services on LMG-680, between the LMG-690 junction and the district of Entre Ribeiros, and on LMG-690, between the LMG-680 junction and the Piri Piri district. The two segments are located in the largest irrigated area in the region.

“We are carrying out renovation, gravel and drainage work on unpaved highways with the aim of ensuring adequate drainage of rainwater and greater conservation of the road and the surrounding soil, avoiding the formation of erosive processes, in addition to ensuring good trafficability” explains Érica Francisca de Paula Araújo, regional coordinator of DER-MG in Paracatu.

“These are very important stretches for agribusiness, since we are in one of the largest irrigated areas and the largest grain plantation area in Minas. In the Northwest region, 2.7 million tons of grain are produced. In the area of ​​influence of LMG-658 alone, production is approximately 798 thousand tons, mainly from the planting of soybeans and corn”, says Érica.

In the Central region, work has already begun in the DER-MG Curvelo URG area, responsible for the maintenance and conservation of 273 kilometers of unpaved sections. Services are provided on MG-220 (between Corinto and Andrequicé), MG-231 (between Santana do Pirapama and Cordisburgo) and LMG-807 (between Santana de Pirapama and Presidente Juscelino).

The mowing, patrolling and stockpiling services have already arrived in Zona da Mata with the execution of improvements on MG-108, between the junction of BR-474 and Mutum and on LMG-615, between Barão de Monte Alto until the junction with BR -116. The execution of the work is under the responsibility of the URG of DER-MG of Manhumirim.

In Jequitinhonha, maintenance has already started on MG-211, in the Capelinha, Setubinha and Novo Cruzeiro segments. The 100-kilometer stretch is being improved, both in the paved and unpaved segments. According to the regional coordinator of Capelinha, Ellen Dayene Cordeiro Sousa, a new work front will begin services on the 100 kilometers of MG-214, which connects Capelinha, Itamarandiba and Senador Modestino Gonçalves.

Milled material

With the largest road network in the country, DER-MG has been looking for alternative solutions to improve its unpaved highways. As there are limited financial resources, it is necessary to use new techniques and materials to improve traffic conditions.

One of the measures is the use of milled material (as the waste is called) from Provias, the largest set of road interventions in the last decade in Minas, which is recovering and paving 124 sections of highways in the state. The measure, in addition to avoiding the creation of an environmental liability, generates savings for public coffers.

Since the beginning of Provias, the mill has, in many cases, replaced gravel extracted from deposits to improve dirt roads. The benefit is already seen in the flow of production in many regions of Minas Gerais, in addition to improving the quality of life of those who use these stretches on a daily basis.

This is the case of the DER-MG URG in Abaeté, in the Central region. In addition to the runway reconstructing services, MG-164 received the application of milled material, between Pompéu and the district of Silva Campos, taken from the Provias works, coming from MG-420.

In the North region, in the area of ​​competence of the DER-MG Regional Coordination in Janaúba, the milled material is used for another purpose. The asphalt residue removed from the Provias functional recovery works, in the Nova Porteirinha section up to the BR-251 junction, is eliminating the steps that existed between the carriageway pavement and the shoulder of the MGC-122 highway. Level differences are identified as one of the main causes of accidents on this highway. With the use of the material, DER-MG is putting an end to an old problem.

More resources for maintenance and upkeep

To ensure that the actions bring more results, DER-MG increased investments in maintenance and conservation services, going from R$7 million in maintaining the road network in each region, to an average of R$24 million in investments.

“The expectation this year is to improve road conservation in view of the new model of permanent conservation contract, which aims to increase the quality of routine maintenance services on state highways”, explains Rodrigo Tavares.

According to the general director of DER-MG, the key point of this new model is, above all, planning, in order to ensure that small problems on the highways do not evolve into more complex situations, which put users at risk and generate excessive costs for public coffers.

Of the 40 regional coordinators across the state, 20 have already started working with the new contract model and the others will implement it gradually, at the end of the old contracts.