Minister Shishkov: Concessions will guarantee us faster and better construction of the motorways

“The construction concession will guarantee us faster and better-quality construction of the motorways”. This said the Minister of Regional Development and Public Works architect Ivan Shishkov during his participation in the morning block of “Euronews Bulgaria”.

The Minister explained that there is an urgent need to design and construct over 1000 km of motorways to have good roadability and reduce the number of accidents in the country. “If there is an opportunity for construction on concession, the state will not commit now and immediately pay a huge amount of money which we do not have,” he said. He added that the other big advantage is that the quality of road construction will improve because if roads are given on concession and maintained for 30 years, contractors will build them so that they are in good condition and major repairs will be done by the 15th year. Currently, motorways built 7-8 years ago are having to be overhauled. “The problem is that the motorways are breaking down on us as the warranty passes and it is 7 years on the asphalt,” Minister Shishkov said. And he gave the example of the emergency condition of the Maritsa motorway which has forced the closure of one lane as the problem there is serious.

“I’m proposing something that in Western Europe and in the world works that way, but we don’t seem to want to build the way they build in the rest of Europe,” architect Shishkov said.

He pointed out that if some of the roads are built on concession, it will benefit all who use them - for example, if the tunnel under Petrohan is implemented, the road will be shortened by 70 km, and drivers will drive on a better-quality route.

“I am proposing this decision purely as an expert, it is the politicians who have to find a way to implement it,” Minister Shishkov explained. And he assured that a full analysis of the state of the motorways is being done to know what their quality is and what future problems to expect. Inspections made so far have shown such on all major infrastructure sites. “You can see the scale of this construction fakery. Surely the state was at fault for not controlling the process. If there were problems in one place and there were none in another place - we would say it was the fault of the builder. Unfortunately, the problem lies in the way the whole construction process was organized,” Ivan Shishkov said.

In addition to the section of the Maritsa Motorway, two lots of the Trakia Motorway - from Stara Zagora to Nova Zagora and from Nova Zagora to Yambol - will have to be overhauled, architect Shishkov said and explained the technology of the inspections. Cores are being taken from several locations on the road and samples from the ground base. The analysis is carried out in a laboratory. During the inspection of the Hemus Motorway the range in asphalt thickness was from 18 cm in one core to 21 cm in the other, while the projected thickness was 28 cm. A large amount of slag was found to be embedded in the subgrade instead of the required aggregates.

Joint inspections with the Ministry of Interior on the quality of road construction will continue, said Minister Shishkov.

An analysis will be made of the availability of technical passports for public buildings. A seismic resistance survey of private residential buildings will not be initiated, as the commitment to maintain them lies with their users and owners. Architect Shishkov pointed out that their construction is subject to serious scrutiny and he is not concerned about the quality of high-rise construction in Bulgaria.