Sofia’s downtown renovation is in the European Prosecutor’s Office

“All correspondence and files related to the inspection of the renovation of Graf Ignatyev Street in Sofia have been handed over to the European Public Prosecutor’s Office.” This was announced by the Minister of Regional Development and Public Works architect Ivan Shishkov on BNT’s “The Day Begins” programme. “The European Prosecutor’s Office’s inspections are related to the way in which European funds have been spent and will be spent - how the renovation was carried out and whether all the rules were followed,” he explained.

According to Minister Shishkov, the joint inspections with the European prosecutors have been ongoing for a month and a half - two months. “Last Monday we had prosecutors from the European Prosecutor’s Office and they were interested in the results of what we have found and we duly provided them with them. The part where there is or is not a violation is now with the European Public Prosecutor’s Office,” the minister explained. He recalled that the checks were made in connection with the payment requested by Sofia Municipality of the European funds, which were provided under the Operational Programmes “Regions in Growth”. “Unfortunately, for some of them the results were not good. For the intersection of Graf Ignatyev Street with Ivan Shishman, the result was not satisfactory. Apparently, also on “Graf Ignatyev”, there are a lot of problems related to sinkholes”, pointed out architect Shishkov.

According to the minister, the other part of the problem of the Graf Ignatyev renovation is how these cases will be overcome and resolved. Several meetings have been held with Sofia Mayor Yordanka Fandakova and a strategy and measures have been identified to enable all identified issues to be addressed within the warranty period. “The only thing I want to influence is that Sofia receives the European money and secondly - that such a renovation can be made that Graf Ignatyev and the yellow pavements are really in a much better condition than they are now. We were able with the inspection, especially for the yellow pavements to give our expertise and help Sofia Municipality,” explained the construction minister. He stressed that his relations with Mayor Fandakova and with the Metropolitan Municipality are extremely good and are in one direction - to help resolve the situation created by the renovation of the centre of the capital.

According to architect Shishkov, the puzzle with “Graf Ignatyev” and the yellow paving stones, which he talks about all the time, is beginning to reflect the political force that in fact created this chaos. “Most likely, the “merit” is much more global, because we are constantly talking about the problems of the roads, the repairs. They are not just in one place; they are in an awful lot of places. Not to mention that they are all over the country,” he said, adding that he could not comment on whether or not there was corruption. “I can comment on the results of the inspections and that too for issues where there are literally centimetres of asphalt missing. These centimetres are to the detriment of the citizens of Bulgaria,” the regional minister said.

The problems in construction are related to a period of 8-10 back in time. “This period is a construction fakery,” architect Shishkov was adamant. In his words, there are centimeters of asphalt missing on the roads. That’s why the inspections are being carried out jointly with the Ministry of Interior. “The results of these are already beginning not to surprise us. Unfortunately, every inspection is missing layers of asphalt,” he said. “The “champion” is the stretch of the Hemus Motorway from Sofia to Yana, where, with 28 cm of asphalt laid by design, only 18 cm and 21 cm of pavement were found from the two samples taken. About 25-30% of the asphalt is missing there.

On Motorway “Maritsa”, on a lot of 30 km, built by an Italian builder, with a required layer of 30 cm of asphalt by design, a pavement thickness of between 23-24 cm was found, said Ivan Shishkov. Again there is a gap of 6-7 cm, which makes about 20%.

On the Hemus Motorway, besides the missing asphalt, there are other problems, too much slag, for example, which raises the question of where it was brought from - Kremikovtzi is nearby,” the minister said. According to him, the roads built 7-8. ago are now due for major repairs. Therefore, there is now an opportunity within this year to start preparing the documents for the overhaul.

The first construction inspection was on the Trakia motorway, where the Nova Zagora - Yambol section was found to be in the worst condition. Design documentation and tender documents for a major overhaul are currently being prepared there. The part between Chirpan - Stara Zagora, where repairs were carried out 3 years ago, has been overhauled, but in the form of an ongoing repair. Which is illegal construction, the minister said.

This year, if there are no appeals on the procurement and overhaul procedures, repairs will most likely begin in these sections, Minister Shishkov said.

Regarding the illegal construction, the Minister pointed out that during his personal inspection of the Topolovo-2 dam, he found an accident of illegal construction - construction without construction permits. The other thing he found out yesterday after surveying was that part of the new facility has gone beyond the scope of the reservoir and is on private property. “Illegal construction at some point creates additional legal problems for us,” he said. The minister pointed out that he had also been to inspect the Yugovo-Lucky Road the same day. The road had been widened by 1-1.5 m without construction papers and the rock had been broken up, resulting in a continuous rock fall on the repaired section. This occurred in the period 2019 - 2020 by the then management of the RIA. “There is unfortified rock and the road is being cleared twice a day of fallen rocks,” the minister said.

Architect Shishkov pointed out that the entire file in connection with such a scale of illegal construction - for over 1 billion BGN, is in the Ministry of Interior. “We worked with them and I will not leave all these problems in the drawer,” the minister was adamant.

He said for 31 of these roads, which had been overhauled as ongoing repairs, there were overhaul projects in place. There was every opportunity to have construction documents issued, to have supervision, to have a contractor for major repairs and commissioning. But this has not happened. “Why - I don’t know. Most likely other people will answer elsewhere. And the result is the construction fakery we are talking about,” the regional minister said.

Tenders for road repairs are currently underway, not only for ongoing but also for major ones. The aim is to prevent illegal construction, which, he said, has been rampant in years past.

Another illegal object, mentioned by former regional minister Violeta Komitova and confirmed by minister Shishkov, is the Sofia - Pernik water pipeline. “She and I both came across what is being said in society. Our shock was terrible - from the fact that billions were given out without projects, from the fact that it was being built illegally,” the regional minister told BNT’s studio.

“For me, the Pernik water pipeline is a political emergency. We are not going to remove it, but the water crisis of Pernik is because of the short-sighted management of the dam itself”, architect Ivan Shishkov was adamant.

As another example of illegal construction, he pointed to some of the toll system’s constructed frameworks. “Out of about 300 frames that are legal, only 70 connections to them have construction permits. Most likely, they will also go to the European prosecutor’s office and the police, because European money has been spent there as well,” the regional minister said.

Architect Ivan Shishkov commented that if part of the motorways were given for construction on concession, it would certainly ensure a much better quality of roads in the country.

In a month and a half, the construction of the last lot of the Europe Motorway will start and again in this period 7 km of the expressway from Botevgrad - Mezdra will be put into operation, the regional minister said. There, work is currently at an advanced stage to launch the Novachene bypass. Within a week or two, the actual strengthening of the landslide on the Struma Motorway after Blagoevgrad will begin. The Detailed Development Plan of the 9th section of the Hemus highway has already been approved, architect Shishkov said.