CITIC Construction Responds to Activist’s Claims Over Almaty–Oskemen Highway Quality

Orda.kz received a letter from the Chinese company CITIC Construction in response to criticism from Abay regional activist Rollan Mashpiev regarding the quality of work on the Almaty-Oskemen highway.

To recap the sequence of events: in September 2025, a commission from the Abay Regional Maslikhat attempted to inspect the quality of work on the national highway, which stretches over 1,000 kilometers and costs more than 180 billion tenge.

The commission faced resistance from several involved parties, which resulted in the inspection being disrupted.

Public activist Rollan Mashpiev expressed outrage over the incident and later personally submitted a pavement sample taken from kilometer 737 of the highway for testing. Results from an independent laboratory indicated poor asphalt quality.

CITIC Construction filed a lawsuit seeking to have these test results declared invalid. The Abay Regional Maslikhat commission demanded that the asphalt be re-sampled in the same area to either confirm or refute Mashpiyev’s findings.

The sample was collected, and the assessment was carried out by the National Center for Road Asset Quality.

However, laboratory staff refused to provide commission members with access to the test results.

There is no seal or signature on the letter, but the reason for this is unknown.

The company's response in Russian can be found here.

Original Author: Ilya Barokhovsky