The “Road Infrastructure“ Agency (API) is the largest public investor in Bulgaria. For the period 2020-2025 alone, over 12 billion leva of public funds passed through it. However, the question remains uncomfortable to this day:
How much road did the state actually get for this money? - asks the Road Safety Institute and adds:
Era of Turbulence (2020-2023): How Infrastructure Debt is Created
The period begins with a fiscal illusion. In 2020, the RIA spent over 2.5 billion leva, mainly on the Hemus and Vidin-Botevgrad motorways, through the massive use of in-house procedures and decrees of the Council of Ministers in the last weeks of the year.
The result:
• billions of paid advances;
• contracts without secured funding for the following years;
• a hidden deficit that explodes in 2021.
After the political change, the state discovered a hole of 2.5 billion leva in contracts for current repair and maintenance, awarded without public procurement. Payments have been stopped, the sector is blocked, it has reached the absurd point of no winter maintenance contracts for the RIA.
In 2022-2023, the second blow comes - inflation. The prices of bitumen, steel and cement are soaring, companies refuse to work at old prices, and the state survives with extended budgets.
The physical progress on “Hemus“ is almost zero.
2025: There is money, the road is not there yet
The 2025 report shows financial sobering up, but not an infrastructure breakthrough.
Revenue breakthrough
• Toll fees: ~763 million leva (incl. CO₂ component)
• Vignettes: ~314 million BGN.
The ratio of heavy goods vehicles to light traffic is already over 2.5:1 — a belated but correct move. The toll system is actually starting to support road maintenance.
Cost problem
The total costs of the RIA in 2025 are about 2.44 billion BGN, of which:
• 1.2 billion BGN for construction and major repairs
• 680 million BGN for ongoing maintenance
• over 100 million leva for electronic systems
The key problem:
A large part of this money does not buy new kilometers, but covers old mistakes.
„HEMUS“ – chronicle of a failure
Despite hundreds of millions:
• only one section is completely completed;
• others are between 40% and 60%;
• complex facilities are critically lagging behind.
The reason is not a lack of funds, but the „in-house“ model, which:
• blocks competition;
• handed out advances without control;
• made the cancellation of contracts practically impossible.
The realistic deadline is now 2028-2029, with continued price increases.
INDEXATION – THE HIDDEN TAX
The indexation methodology allows for a 50-70% increase in prices under old contracts.
The result:
• with 1 billion leva less is built in 2025 than with 1 billion in 2020;
• the budget pays the price of the delay of previous years.
AUDITS: CONTROL WITH DELAY
The reports of the Court of Auditors for 2024-2025 show progress, but also:
• violations in public procurement;
• dubious commitments close to quasi-state debt;
• materials sent to the prosecutor's office and ADFI.
The conclusion
API in 2025 is no longer a piggy bank without control.
But it is still paying the bills of the past, instead of building the future.
There is money. The road is lagging behind.
What needs to change
• Multi-year budget, protected from political cycles
• Full transparency of contracts and payments in real time
• Cheaper and more efficient toll system
• Project readiness before construction, not after it
Without this, Bulgaria will continue to invest billions – and move in first gear.