The former Prime Minister of Georgia and founder of the Georgian Dream political party, Bidzina Ivanishvili, in his letter (issued on 30 May 2015) addressing the Georgian population underscored that the new government has brought forth improvement in many fields including the increased pace of high-speed highway construction.

FactCheck

sought to determine the length and area of constructed highway surface both under the previous and incumbent governments.

Construction work on the Tbilisi-Senaki-Leselidze high-speed highway started in 2006. It comprises the E-60 (Poti-Tbilisi-Red Bridge) and the E-70 (Poti-Batumi-Sarpi) highways. The total length of the highway is approximately 390 kilometres (see FactCheck’s article 1 and article 2).

According to the information of the Department of Highways, a 148.5 kilometre-long section of the high-speed highway was opened in the period of July 2006 to present day. Traffic was opened on a 68.2 kilometre-long section of the high-speed highway in 2006-2012 and on an 80.3 kilometre-long section of the high-speed highway in 2013-2016 (until July). In 2006-2012, 1,567,450 square metres of road surface was constructed. Between 2013 and 2016, another 1,215,900 square metres was built.

Table 1:

 Length (kilometres) and Area (square metres) of High-Speed Highway Opened in 2006-2012

Year	Length of Opened Highway (kilometres)	Area of Opened Highway (square metres)
2006	0.0	0.0
2007	13.7	315,100
2008	20	460,000
2009	15.2	349,600
2010	6	138,000
2011	11.8	271,400
2012	1.45	33,350
In total	68.15	1,567,450

Table 2:

 Length (kilometres) and Area (square metres) of High-Speed Highway Opened in 2013-2016

Year	Length of Opened Highway (kilometres)	Area of Opened Highway (square metres)
2013	15.40	183,300
2014	41.40	502,100
2015	16.50	379,500
2016 (until July)	7	151,000
In total	80.3	1,215,900

As we have already mentioned, construction work on the high-speed highway was launched in March 2006. However, during the first year no road pavement work was carried out. Therefore, during the rule of the United National Movement, an average of 11.3 kilometres of highway with an average area of 261,242 square metres of road surface was opened annually. After the change of government, an average of 22.9 kilometres of highway with an average area of 347,400 square metres of road surface are opened annually. This shows that the newly constructed highways per year are twice as long and 1.3 times larger in area under the Georgian Dream’s time in office. Of note as well is that construction work was ongoing on highway sections encompassing a total area of 2,187,500 square metres at the end of 2012. This means that the work on the high-speed highway had already been launched when the Georgian Dream came into power. As of June 2016, construction work is in progress on the highway sections with a total area of 3,118,000 square metres.

Of further mention is the fact that the construction of some of the sections of the high-speed highway which were opened after the change of government were in fact started before October 2012 and funds for the construction were raised before that date (an exception concerns the modernisation/construction of the Zestaponi-Kutaisi-Samtredia and Samtredia-Grigoleti connecting road sections and the construction of the Agara-Zemo Osiauri connecting road section). Therefore, in some cases the new government had already prepared road sections for asphalting which accelerated the overall pace of the construction work.

At the present moment, the technical-economic research on the Chumateleti-Argveta section of the high-speed highway has been completed and tender procedures are being launched in order to prepare the project documentation for the Khevi-Ubisa-Shorapani-Argveta sections.

Conclusion

Construction work on the high-speed highway was launched in March 2006 although asphalting started in 2007. In total, traffic was opened on a 68.2 kilometre-long section of the high-speed highway with a total road surface area of 1,567,450 square metres during the rule of the United National Movement.  After the change of government, traffic was opened on an 80.3 kilometre-long section of the high-speed highway with a total road surface area of 1,215,900 square metres. Annually, this shows that the newly constructed highways are twice as long and 1.3 times larger in area since the Georgian Dream came into power. However, of particular mention is the fact that construction work on some of the sections of the high-speed highway which were opened after the change of government were in fact started under the previous government. By the time that the Georgian Dream came into office, construction work had already been launched on an area comprising 2,187,500 square metres which accelerated the overall construction pace of the high-speed highway.

FactCheck concludes that Bidzina Ivanishvili’s statement is HALF TRUE.