The Road Infrastructure Agency has terminated the contract with the company BG NOVA, which maintains the republican roads in the Burgas region.
This is happening because of a systematic failure to perform on time and with the necessary quality of the assigned activities related to winter maintenance and restoration works in emergency situations on the republican roads in the territory of the district, explained the API.
The latest example is from the last weekend (November 18 and 19), when the company, despite the repeated attempts of the contractor, the given instructions and requirements to take the necessary adequate actions to maintain the republican roads in the Burgas region and to ensure the safe travel of drivers in winter conditions , remained scoreless. This led to the closure of road sections and the blocking of major road arteries such as road I-9 Obzor – Sunny Beach – Burgas, road I-9 Burgas – Malko Tarnovo, road III-208 Provadia – Aytos, road III-906 Orizare – Kableshkovo via Dyulinski Prohod and road III-6009 Mirolyubovo – Kableshkovo. The company did not provide a plan for winter maintenance of the roads within the specified period.
There were significant gaps and remarks in the snow removal and maintenance activities last winter as well. Fines and corrections in the values of the winter maintenance activities have been repeatedly imposed on the company. For example, adjustments have been made to winter maintenance values due to a lack of minimum required winter maintenance materials; non-performed, as required, daily patrols of the road sections; untimely installation of GPS technology for tracking and controlling the snow removal machines; icy and raw areas and others.
Gaps are also reported in the assigned activities for restoration works in emergency situations on the republican roads after the torrential rains and floods on September 4 and 5, 2023 in the Burgas region. The deadline for the implementation of the emergency restoration activities was October 27 of this year, considering the beginning of the winter season. As of November 20 of this year, 35% of the assigned activities have not been completed.
API takes the necessary actions to ensure winter maintenance and restoration works in emergency situations on the republican roads in the territory of Burgas, and in such cases the Law on Public Procurement allows, in the presence of exceptional circumstances, to take urgent actions to conclude a new contract with another contractor , in order to ensure the winter maintenance of the republican roads in the Burgas region. The estimated value of the order will be around BGN 12.4 million without VAT.
Until the conclusion of a new contract, the removal of emergency-recovery situations will be ensured by the employees of OPU-Burgas.
The termination of the contract with the company “BG Nova” was announced by the regional governor of Burgas, Plamen Yanev, who announced on Sunday evening that the snow removal company refused to remove the machines despite the snowstorms. “Due to the refusal, we have a problem with the Burgas-Obzor pass, which is closed due to snowstorms. The Road Infrastructure Agency (API) had to redirect machines to Obzor from the Trakia highway,” Yanev said at a briefing on Sunday and announced that he would insist on terminating the contract with this company.
