There are two items in this budget - 680 million leva for repairs, and a little over 1 billion leva for new construction. With this money we can build about 50 km of highways, about 100 km of other roads and repair about 400 km of roads. This was said in the show "Face to Face" on BTV by the Chairman of the Management Board of the "Road Infrastructure" Agency, Eng. Yordan Valchev.
In response to the claims of "We continue the change" that the estimated price of 3 billion leva for the construction of a 60-kilometer section of the "Ruse-Veliko Tarnovo" highway, is an expression of an "absolutely scandalous corruption scheme" of the government, he said that if anyone has evidence of corruption, there are authorities to be contacted.
As an engineer, I currently do not notice such schemes and things are going better and better, the head of the RIA emphasized.
The real price will be understood when we build the road. The price they are talking about is an estimated price for the tender. In 2020, the tender was won at a price of 20 million per kilometer. Since then, inflation has been 108%, which means that the price should be around 42 million. This section is more complex, it approaches the mountain, includes 10 km of only connections, including "clover", there are 2 km of tunnels, about 9 km of viaducts. There was an independent investigation in the media, which said that the price in Romania reaches 80 million per kilometer, and the lowest price is 55 million. There are also similar prices in Croatia, said Eng. Yordan Valchev.
Currently, this section is being traded, there are about 60 days to submit offers. After that, the offers will be considered by a committee at the RIA and construction work will begin, he said, specifying that work on the section should be completed within 5 years.
Eng. Valchev announced that construction of the Kresna bypass will begin in late summer-early autumn, and in response to a question he explained that he expects it by 2031. to have the "Hemus" highway from Sofia to Varna ready.
The quality of road construction in our country is comparable to that of Europe. The problem is that there is not enough money for maintenance and repair after they are built, he commented.
The head of the RIA assured that at each site there is supervision, independent of the builder, which controls the quality of the roads in our country.
Eng. Yordan Valchev also announced that this year about 4400 km will be inspected and "nuts" will be taken from them.