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Thu, Feb 09 2012
Sofians protest against potholes
Photo: Julia Lazarova
A protest outside Sofia municipality building at 10am on March 11 2010 was aimed at highlighting the poor condition of Sofia's streets, Dnevnik daily reported.
The protest was called Dupkovden, or "pothole day", and was organised by members of the socialist youth organisation Youth Internet Media, Dnevnik said.
"Everyone interested in joining the protest should bring a piece of his car damaged by the potholes, and leave it outside the municipality building," organisers said beforehand.
Organisers asked motorists in other Bulgaria cities to join them, telling them to congregate outside their own municipal centres and protest against the state of the country's road network.
Such protests have already occurred in Varna and Veliko Turnovo.
On March 3, Varna Prosecutor's Office launched a comprehensive investigation to inspect the condition of roads and streets, prompted by the dire condition of Varna's network and the widespread discontent this has caused.
The investigation in Varna, the first of its kind, was a part of a widespread operation across Bulgaria ordered by the Supreme Administrative Prosecution Office and covering the last six months of 2008 and the whole of 2009.
The potholes in Varna triggered a wave of public protests several weeks ago, prompting Varna mayor Kiril Yordanov to dismiss Rositsa Kirova from her post at the municipality's investment policy department.
The protest was called Dupkovden, or "pothole day", and was organised by members of the socialist youth organisation Youth Internet Media, Dnevnik said.
"Everyone interested in joining the protest should bring a piece of his car damaged by the potholes, and leave it outside the municipality building," organisers said beforehand.
Organisers asked motorists in other Bulgaria cities to join them, telling them to congregate outside their own municipal centres and protest against the state of the country's road network.
Such protests have already occurred in Varna and Veliko Turnovo.
On March 3, Varna Prosecutor's Office launched a comprehensive investigation to inspect the condition of roads and streets, prompted by the dire condition of Varna's network and the widespread discontent this has caused.
The investigation in Varna, the first of its kind, was a part of a widespread operation across Bulgaria ordered by the Supreme Administrative Prosecution Office and covering the last six months of 2008 and the whole of 2009.
The potholes in Varna triggered a wave of public protests several weeks ago, prompting Varna mayor Kiril Yordanov to dismiss Rositsa Kirova from her post at the municipality's investment policy department.
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I have been told that contractors are using materials that are sub-standard (and these are being approved by the people responsible for checking). I guess that the contractors are doing this to recover some of the monies they have to pay out (under the table) to win the contract in the first place.
Stiga is absolutely right, in the first place the main problem is the poor quality of road building. Then, even when repairs are made, their quality is equally poor. Also, having seen many roads that after subsequent repairs look like patchwork, the question came to my mind that it might have costed less to replace the whole asphalt cover then to spend money for dozens of repairs.
If the roads were constructed correctly in the first place there would be significantly less repairs required. Also, I have noted many repairs (potholes filled in) that are not done well and subsequently fail within 12 months. Welcome to beautiful Bulgaria!
We are all fed up with the lack of maintenance in city streets and most provincial and national roads. I hope that no one shares the philosophy of Ann T that potholes make driving more secure and comfortable as "potholes are nature's speed bumps....and they are free". Bullshit!
The complaints are about potholes but I have seen cow-size holes, this particularly on secondary streets where apparently no maintenance was performed since too many years. To the contrary, one can hardly find noticeable holes in several main streets, e.g. Evlogi Georgiev, Basil Levski, etc. It looks as if there is some sort of discrimination between class A streets that deserve maintenance and and other roads considered unimportant. But most of the people live, walk, cycle and drive on the so called secondary streets!
Yeah well, but would be able to drive that fancy SUV on the photo, if we tax ourselves for everything?
Look at Denmark - great roads but hardly any nice cars on them, because after they are finished paying for the roads, no one can afford the cars.
No thank you, I prefer the BG way..
"The protest was called Dupkovden, or "pothole day", and was organised by members of the socialist youth organisation Youth Internet Media"
so these muppets are run by the SOcialist party and Sergei. why werent they complaining about hte potholes last year then?
A certain ex-mayor of Sofia upon election promised to sort out the potholes in Sofia. Obviously he has not. Now he is prime minister. And just like all the PR bullshit practised now, at the time a big PR issue was made over one dupka on Bulgaria Blvd. As usual njakoy si ne svirshil rabota.
Ann is right.
If you fix the roads, everyone will just drive faster. There will be more accidents and injuries then, and the authorities will find that they have to install speed bumps to slow folks down..... Pot Holes are NATURE'S speed bumps....and they are free.
Road tax is only payed if you leave the city, just add few stotinki to every liter of fuel sold and there will be no way to avoid paying! Like this all roads can be fixed properly in few years. Complaining is of no use if nobody wants to pay for nothing.
Who gives a frak? At least not the municipality.
There is no road tax in Bulgaria.
There are vignettes of 35 euro per year, and tax per car that is generally about 25 eur. 1 BGN per liter of fuel and that's that.
Good work!
In my opinion, the government or local municipality should be sued for every single car damaged by potholes - we pay road tax.............but WHY IF THERE ARE HARDLY ANY ROADS!!