The sections from the "Hemus" Motorway to Veliko Tarnovo will be completed within 3-4 years. This was said in "The Day Begins" on BNT by the Chairman of the Management Board of the "Road Infrastructure" Agency (API), Eng. Alexander Todorov.
"It is important for me to complete this highway so that people can travel safely. Especially the sections that are near Veliko Tarnovo, lots 4, 5 and 6 of the Pleven-Lovech road, and these two, the 2nd and 3rd lots, which are near the Pleven-Lovech road, we should complete them within 3-4 years, so that traffic in Northern Bulgaria can really be eased."
Todorov announced that the RIA will propose a new strategy for the restrictive systems on the roads. He stated that the maintenance of the mentalities should be tied to the repair contracts, and not as now by districts. According to him, this will allow for their more timely replacement and synchronization with the repairs.
"The previous contracts that were completed were implemented by 2-3 companies. The new orders that were announced last year and about which there were complaints are respectively in the CPC. We terminated them yesterday. To solve this problem, we have a new strategy — to divide, just one indent, the positions for restrictive systems, as people commonly call guardrails, are 6. That is, Bulgaria is divided into 6 regions, which reduces the possibility of good execution of repair contracts and contracts for replacement and maintenance of restrictive systems. Our idea is to divide them as much as there are repair contracts, and to be in one. That is, contracts for current repair and maintenance should also include restrictive systems, so that there are no discrepancies. Currently, under one contract, some road repairs are being carried out, under another contract, the restraint system must be replaced, but the contracts for restraint systems have expired, the new ones have been suspended and we cannot actually fulfill our obligations."
The head of the RIA also commented on the possibility of installing concrete restraints in place of the guardrails.
"There are countries that practice installing concrete restraint systems, and others that use steel ones. My opinion, without being an expert in road safety and restraint systems, is that there is no single solution. Concrete restraint systems are rigid. Realistically speaking, when hit by a passenger car, which is the bulk of our traffic, they are hard, do not dissipate energy, i.e. do not reduce the energy of the impact and, accordingly, the damage to the passengers and the driver will be much greater. Imagine hitting a wall that is stationary. The main advantage of steel restraint systems is that they are deformable. Each deformation dissipates energy, i.e. absorbs the impact energy and reduces the impact on drivers."
He commented on the state of the road network, the accumulated problems in the sector and the plans for completing key infrastructure projects.
At the beginning of the conversation, he stated that his main goal is to accelerate work on the sites and improve the condition of the roads.
„With the ambition to move forward quickly and qualitatively all road sites that benefit society and citizens. And above all, to erase the stain on the institution, since we have a lot of responsibilities and, above all, human lives depend on taking care of people.“
Asked whether the upcoming audit by the National Audit Office will deepen criticism of the agency, he indicated that the institution will cooperate with the inspection bodies.
„I can't say, let's see what comes out of the inspection. We cooperate with everything that needs to be submitted as information so that colleagues can do their job and the results can be impartially assessed.“
When asked where the accumulated criticism of the RIA comes from, Todorov pointed to a complex of factors - long-standing problems, infrastructure lag and lack of funds.
„Over the years, the accumulation of negative public opinion, problems with road infrastructure. Generally speaking, on a European and global scale, the underfunding of this infrastructure and especially its maintenance leads to a decrease in operational performance.“
According to him, some of the reasons are also related to the state of the network.
„In particular, in Bulgaria, underfinancing has been going on for many years, especially in road infrastructure and maintenance. In reality, this is about 20,000 km of road network, about 4,000 road facilities, which were built in the 1970s and 1980s. In reality, they are naturally depreciated.“