By repairing the section from Stara Zagora to Yambol on the “Trakia” highway, the easiest way to steal some money. This was commented by the head of the Road Safety Institute, Eng. Bogdan Milchev, to Iskra.bg, after a few days ago the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works presented results of laboratory samples of the Trakia highway, taken from the section in question. According to the expert, all this was dust in the eyes.
“They decide to check a road that has nothing to do with reality. A road built 10 years ago. A road that this same state lab said was fine. The minister decides to smoke something like a big nothing because nothing is going to come out of this thing. Except it will motivate right now to quickly spend some 300 million to fix this road. And it’s not just this section. There are many roads to be cleared before her. But that’s where the money can be stolen the easiest. This is the problem”, explained Eng. Milchev.
Asked how the scheme works, the expert explained:
“When you only change the asphalt on the road, and they write on documents that they have done countless other things underneath the road. And after they lay the asphalt – go catch them what they have done down there or not. And whether it is the old or the new. On a big site like this the money is big, it’s very easy to repair and cut the asphalt and put new because anyway this one is to be replaced as the asphalt is basically replaced between 10 and 12 years when it is the end of the service life of a road. And he, at the end of the operational period, when we are going to change the asphalt on the road anyway, decides to beat the drum that it is very bad, so that the repair will be bigger, because they will do many other things to him on the road and steal the money – that’s the whole thing.”
Yesterday Eng. Bogdan Milchev asked arch. Shishkov why samples were not taken from the newly constructed and newly built roads such as “Europe” highway, the road Botevgrad-Vidin, “Hemus” highway (Lot 1) and “Trakia” highway from Chirpan to Stara Zagora. He explained that, referring to the Law on Access to Public Information, they requested the specifications of the 4 sections in question.
“Specifications are what requirements must be met during construction – how thick should the asphalt be, how much stone, how much water, concrete and so on. These documents are available in an electronic version and we wanted them in one, because there are many folders and things in paper. They tell us they can’t give them to us electronically. That’s exactly how they wrote it down because we could have made a wrong opinion as we’re not experts and we don’t understand. Because of this, they only let me go to the Road Infrastructure Agency in a room without having the right to record and take pictures – to see the documents. I am a representative of the Institute of Highway Safety, but no, I am not that kind of road expert. And why don’t they send them electronically, why don’t they publish them for all people if you are so honest?” asks the expert and adds that the briefing of the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works took place shortly after.
The Road Safety Institute does not intend to challenge the Road Infrastructure Agency’s decision to use procedural tricks to limit their access to information, but they are adamant that they will not leave things as they are and will wait for a minister to work with. They have already selected an independent international laboratory in Slovakia to check for them whether the roads meet the specifications.
“If there are irregularities, those who appointed him (bel. row – the minister) will suffer. And who appointed him? The construction companies that build these objects. In Bulgaria, construction companies have been appointing ministers for a long time.”
As of now, Eng. Milchev has not received an answer to the questions he sent yesterday on social networks to the regional minister. He added:
“No. The minister is considered to be very cunning and will speak hotly. We met a year and a half ago in his office on this subject and he lied to us. This same minister lied that they would release the „Zheleznitsa“ pipe by the end of September, but he did not release it. This same minister lied that the section from Kalotina to Dragoman will be ready by the end of September, and it is not ready.”
At the same time, today the Institute for Road Safety pointed out that in September, during the opening of a section of the „Hemus“ highway, neither the minister, nor his deputy, nor the chairman of the Administrative Board of the API had the impression that on the first-class road I- 1 (E79) lacks „axis line“ marking in the section from the roundabout after the end of the highway to the beginning of the Kresnen Gorge (the branch for the village of Krupnik).
“And this is for 12 kilometers, with the exception of the temporary intersection at the turnoff for the construction of the new railway tunnel, which is marked with an orange marking. This is the section of the busiest first-class road in Bulgaria, through which all the traffic in the direction of Greece passes, which takes a huge number of tourists, including from Romania, as well as heavy trucks! The lack of marking creates a huge risk of serious traffic accidents, the last of which was on 09/05/2022”, the Institute for Road Safety emphasizes.
“We are managed by some tricksters”, the expert is categorical. During the interview, a comment was also made about the allegations that President Rumen Radev was informed of a requested bribe by a deputy minister, but did no actions after that. According to him, the head of state should be asked:
“Why, after he was informed by his adviser, who is now the Minister of Defense – Dimitar Stoyanov, he personally saw eye to eye with the construction company. Why he /bel. row – the president/ did not contact the prosecutor’s office and the Ministry of the Interior about this report, which was submitted to him in his office? Minister Komitova also knows and was present at this thing. Minister Komitova, the Minister of Defense, the construction company, an employee of the MRRD Todor Stoyanov attend a meeting with the President and report on a bribe demanded by Deputy Minister Zahari Hristov, and he was not removed. He is currently the deputy minister. It was not reported to the Prosecutor’s Office, nor was it reported to the Ministry of the Interior. (…) The question for the president is why didn’t he file a report?”
According to engineer Milchev, the situation will be as long as those who use the state resource appoint ministers. And he emphasized: “These are not Radev’s ministers, he has not appointed them for a long time and does not even know them. He protects them because he has a commitment to those who appointed him. Apparently he is addicted to them. He has to answer – it was so and so, because very quickly his fist broke and became a fist.”
In conclusion, it became clear that very soon the Road Safety Institute will be circulating an open letter to the President, the Prime Minister and of course the media, requesting that they be given the right for 2 years to create risk management standards, making a commitment in the first year to reduce road casualties by between 50 and 100 fewer people.
