The World Bank announced an international tender - "Design, supply and installation of six weight – in – motion sites on arterial roads around Kyiv and back office system (weight – in – motion (WIM) pilot system project)”. Volodymyr Omelyan, the Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine stated the above during the press conference, which took place on July 27, 2018, at the Ministry of Infrastructure.

Slawomir Novak, the head of "Ukravtodor", Vyacheslav Didkivsky, the head of the State Service of Ukraine for Transport Safety, Evheniy Bulah, the World Bank Transport Specialist and Oleksandra Klitina, the head of the Reform Support Team at the Ministry of Infrastructure took part in the event.

Volodymyr Omelyan said that the maximum expected amount of applications is $ 4.9 million: "It is expected that bidders will be consortia of foreign and Ukrainian companies. The winner should be defined in September 2018, and the works are expected to start in October 2018. The project was developed jointly by the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine, the World Bank, the State Agency of Automobile Roads of Ukraine, the State Service of Ukraine for Transport Safety and international consultants."

According to the Head of the Ministry, the project provides: 10 WiM-complexes that identify overloaded trucks among the traffic and transmit information about them to the inspectors of the State Service of Ukraine for Transport Safety at mobile control points located further along the road. There will be six locations, on four sites the measurements will be carried out in two directions of movement, and on two sites - in one direction, towards Kyiv.  After receiving detailed information, the inspectors stop the truck and check the weight. If the violation is confirmed, inspector documents it and impose the sanctions.

"The systems will be located on the roads M-01, M-03, M-05, M-06, M-07. Initially, WiM-complexes will work in the so-called preselection mode, and later - in the automatic mode of imposing sanctions”, - the Minister of Infrastructure emphasized.

The strategic goals of using WiM technology: to keep the roads from premature destruction, to reduce the risk and severity of the consequences of road accidents involving trucks and to create the inevitability of control and punishment for the violation of the requirements of legislation on weight restrictions.

The practical objectives of the project: to test technology in the real conditions of Ukraine, to establish administrative and technical processes and to accelerate the development and implementation of legislative changes that are necessary for the effective and comprehensive weight control.

According to the Head of the Ministry, the project provides the construction of structures for the placement on it the equipment on key entry points to Kyiv; supply and installation of modern electronic weighing; the delivery and installation of modern electronic weight, identification and vehicle control systems; the installation and integration of electronic computing and communications equipment; the creation and launch of data center, as well as training of Ukrainian specialists to work with new systems and maintenance of these systems during the first two years of operation.

Why the project is implemented on the entry points to Kiev: there is a pilot project and its purpose is to test technologies and to work out the administrative and legal nuances of the work of new systems.

The key government agencies - the Ministry of Infrastructure, the State Agency of Automobile Roads of Ukraine, the State Service of Ukraine for Transport Safety, as well as the Kyiv Major's Office, which already equips stationary weighing complexes on highways at its own expense, closely cooperate on the project.

"After the successful implementation of the pilot project around Kyiv, it is planned to deploy similar systems in other areas, primarily Odessa, Mykolaiv and Kherson", - Volodymyr Omelyan said.

He also named the main advantages of WiM technology:

1. There are no needs to stop vehicles or reduce their speed for monitoring;
2. Exclusion of the human factor, and hence of corruption risks;
3. Coverage of all 100% of trucks passing through a section of the road;
4. The ability to collect "big data" about the traffic that can be used for analytics and decision-making.

"The need for legislative developments: in parallel with the pilot project, the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine is working with parliamentary committees and other interested parties to adopt draft laws 7318 and 7319, which should open the way to the introduction of automatic weight control and application of sanctions to offending companies," - the Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine stressed.

Occasionally, he turned to:

1. The companies of intelligent transport systems sector from Ukraine and the countries of the European Union - we invite to the formation of consortia, participation in this tender, and further similar purchases. The tender takes place according to the procedures of the World Bank, the Government of Ukraine counts on the victory of the best participant and on the rapid implementation of the project. This is the "first step" after which there will be other purchases of such equipment in the next 10 years. Now it is the time to enter this market, which start to form;
2. People's deputies of Ukraine - with a request to introduce draft laws 7318 and 7319 into the agenda of the relevant committees as soon as possible, to work on amends to these bills;
3.  Automobile carriers - with a request to build business processes in a way that does not violate the weight restrictions that exist in Ukraine and which are standard for the countries of Europe.

Slawomir Novak, the head of Ukravtodor noted that the introduction of automatic weigh control in Ukraine is consistent with European practices: "Earlier this year, we said that this would be an important year - the year of the launch of intelligent transport systems (ITS). ITS includes the Weigh –in – motion, automatic speed control, the collection of traffic data, which is needed to plan the work in the future. This is an important step. We implement the EU Directives on the implementation of intelligent transport systems. Ukraine is the only country in Europe where weigh control in the movement and elements of the ITS are still not working. We are reforming the road industry, we are starting to implement the Directives of the EU, ITS, and thus we are moving forward. The next step is launch data collect system. Thus, we improve the safety of traffic on the roads, and most importantly - protect the roads. This system minimizes the corruption component. "

Evheniy Bulakh: "I want to note that the joint project of the World Bank and Ukraine has an investment component for the construction and reconstruction of roads of general importance. And in order to protect such investments, we have included a component to develop a weigh in motion system. Such system will allow to change the situation on the roads of road safety and protect investments that Ukraine invests in the road industry. The main thing is to accept those bills that the Minister spoke about, and so that the system works in a completely automatic mode. We hope that this pilot will be the first step for the developing of such system on all roads of national importance. "

Vyacheslav Didkivsky, the head of State Service of Ukraine for Transport Safety noted: "We are considering three stages of this process: the first is the fixation, the definition of the violation; the second - registration; the third - bringing to responsibility. This is important, necessary and this will be done. Automate all processes, save resources. We will begin with the fact that in the places of deployment of stationary complexes at a certain distance our sites will be located, where we will work on those vehicles that will be overloaded. All those who will not have an overload will continue to move.

An important aspect of our activity is internal audit, control and effectiveness of each inspector's decision-making. If the vehicle has passed through the ramp with an overload, but has not been fixed by the inspectorate - it will be held accountable

"So, our goal is that next year each truck that weighs more than 40 tons could not go in or leave Kyiv. Also our goal is that within the next three years the total weigh of the vehicles moving along the Ukrainian roads should not exceed 40 tons. Automatic weigh control will be introduced throughout Ukraine ", - added, summing up, the Minister of Infrastructure -" This is a huge work, and I am grateful to everyone for their cooperation. This last for more than a year and a half, but as a result, we made a ready-made solution: the bills were developed; they are in the parliament, as in the case of automatic fixing, as well as the increase of sanctions for overloading of transport, and that responsibility extends not only to the carrier, but on the company that sends the cargo and which receives. To be fair. Therefore, I hope that together with the Government we will achieve the goal. After all, these elements are also important for the further development of infrastructure. "