2024-02-14 15:43:45
This year it will be 50 years since the first sod was broken on the “Hemus” highway. This is recalled in an analysis by the Road Safety Institute.
The highway was designed with a length of 418 km, it started in the fall of 1974. By the fall of 2022, only 191 km have been built. Most of them were built last century, before 2000.
In the period 2011-2018, the remaining kilometers for construction were divided into 11 sections (lots) with a total length of 244 km. After 2018, a total of 9 lots with a total length of 223 km remain for construction, divided into three stages:
Stage I – Lots 1, 2 and 3 with a length of 52 km
II stage – Lots 4,5 and 6 with a length of 83 km
Stage III – Lots 7, 8 and 9 with a length of 89 km
In early February, a team from the institute conducted a survey of the started but unfinished sections of lots 1 and 2 of the highway. Their findings are startling:
The road body built in 2021 – 2022 was left unreinforced and exposed to atmospheric influences. The main layers are soaked with moisture, highly compromised and will not be able to withstand the heavy traffic along the main thoroughfare for Northern Bulgaria.
The slopes are not stabilized and have started to collapse. The same is observed in the drainage ditches, on which there are sprouted weeds and the connection between the individual elements is broken.
Sprung vegetation is also observed on the top layer of the stabilized base, as it has not been sealed and no effort has been made to conserve it. As a result, a collapse has begun.
The base asphalt layer (binder) laid in places was not shaped according to standards and where no guide strips were laid, it started to collapse. Part of the guide strips can be seen stored on the pallet along the route.
The semi-finished sections are left to the whims of time and fate – they are not preserved, there is no security, cars, animals and people pass freely on them, the IPB states.
The experts highlight some of the reasons for the large loop of construction assigned to the state enterprise “Automagistrali”:
There are still sections where the expropriation of properties, through which the route of the highway passes, has not been carried out
There are unresolved problems with the geology
In sections 4 and 5 there is evidence of illegal construction, the status of which has not yet been resolved
The guarantees for quality performance according to the signed 2 contracts for “Hemus” are carried by the state “Automagistrali”, while in practice mainly subcontractors carry out the construction and installation works.
The Prosecutor’s Office has found violations of “Automagistrali”, related to the subcontracting of the design of sections of the highway, a counter-inspection has been appointed for which there is no information yet
The Institute for Road Safety adds that the condition of the “frozen” is due to incompetence, carelessness and lack of responsibility. And they blame for this the relevant ministers, heads of API, the contractor in the person of “Automagistrali” EAD.
“Each new minister publicly announces deadlines for completing the highway to buy political time. Not one takes action to preserve the unfinished construction in order not to compromise what has already been built. In the summer of 2022, there was even a risk of scrapping and demolishing already flown, but not installed pre-stressed beams for viaducts after the Boaza junction, due to the suspension of construction. The incompetent management of state resources brings damages of tens of millions of BGN”, the analysis also reads.
The experts come to the conclusion that “at this stage, one cannot talk about continuing the construction activity or the so-called “completion” without taking measures to eliminate the above problems. Laying asphalt on the compromised ground will lead to new rapid destructive processes of the completed highway – initially deformations, then subsidence and rapid destruction”.
And they end with the question: “Who will take responsibility for the mistakes made?”