A Plovdiv woman who lives at 131 Iztochen Blvd. complained about the quality:
“Dear editor, I am very outraged. I am even disgusted. This is why: On Iztochen Blvd., opposite the central cemetery, there are two yellow blocks, Thracian type. They are doing some kind of project there and there is a big renovation going on right now. There is nothing wrong with that, I have lived here since the blocks were built and for 40 years nothing has been done.
We are one big block with 5 entrances. On the boulevard side, everything is excellent, but on the back side, where the entrances are, new tiles are being laid at 3 entrances, tiles are being laid again along the foundations of the block. The other two entrances remain without tiles. They arrange the old tiles, which are broken, as if they were arranging a puzzle. They say they were not part of the project.
One whole block, can 3 entrances be in the project and two – not? I pay my taxes, they pay their taxes too. This is an absurd situation.
The garden in front of the block was a children’s playground, nothing is done there at all, it remains like this a bare spot. I doubt that someone must have marked it to be built from the front, otherwise I see no reason why nothing should be touched. While a kindergarten is being built on the other side of the kindergarten, everything is wonderful.
It is noteworthy that on the neighboring block, two entrances also have the old tiles. Emi, come on, I beg of you now, how are we to understand this? That’s 1000 tiles, not even as many as I calculated, to put on the two blocks. Did they rest as much as 1000 tiles? Something is happening, but I can’t figure out what. What is this project?
I am very outraged. I’m shaking with nerves. I don’t know who to turn to, so I’m calling you. Come see – to the middle of the block of tiles, the others – the broken ones arranged in a puzzle”.
The second signal is from a caretaker at one of the entrances. He writes to us:
“Dear editor, come to our neighborhood to see how European money is spent and street repairs are made in the middle of winter.
At the moment, in the “Central” district, in the square closed between “Iztochen” Blvd., “6th September” Blvd., “Mortagon” and “Rayno Popovich” streets, the pavement is being replaced and the spaces between the blocks are being repaired.
All over the neighborhood there are huge signs that a European project for “RENEWAL OF THE URBAN ENVIRONMENT IN THE MUNICIPALITY OF PLOVDIV – 2020-2023” is being implemented. under the Operational Program “Regions in Growth”. The start date of implementation, according to the signs, is December 2020, and the final launch date is June 30, 2023. 8 and a half million is the European funding, one and a half million comes from the state, and BGN 400 thousand is the self-participation of the municipality of Plovdiv. The repair is carried out by a Pazardzhik company. As far as we are aware from publications in the press, it is about improvement, landscaping, rehabilitation and construction of children’s and sports grounds in the inter-block spaces.
So far so good. Despite the pompous inscriptions, pouring of champagne and first sods, however, almost two years on this project nothing was done. In the summer of 2022, for the first time, some workers appeared in the neighborhood. Their work lasted two or three weeks, and consisted in plowing up the gardens, removing some of the old tiles, and destroying much of the greenery of the neighborhood, which had been created by the labor of the people living around. They also laid some wiring for new lighting and drip irrigation pipes. For this purpose, 30-year-old trees were cut because they hindered the implementation of the project, according to the explanation of the technical managers.
As they say, they plowed and disappeared. In the fall, a worker in the neighborhood did not spring. We are wading briskly in the mud and there is no end in sight. And suddenly, literally two days before Christmas, some materials came down, gravel, concrete blocks, three swarthy workers appeared, who literally in a day or two shaped some avenues and slapped some pavements, only partially.
After the New Year, the work continued, but, unfortunately, with a hideous quality. Obviously, there is a lot of hurry, because there is a lot of work on the project, and there are only six months to complete before the deadline. The alleys that formed are crooked, the paths undulating and sloping. Where gaps remain between the new concrete blocks, it is plastered with cement. Who lays cement in the middle of winter and how does it dry? In addition to being ugly as hell, the cement is already cracked in places.
The other craziness of the project is that a new pavement is being laid only on the front side of the blocks, on Eastern Boulevard and in front of three of the entrances that are visible from the boulevard. It was explained to the residents that in front of the remaining three out of a total of six entrances, they will leave the old tiles, which are over 30 years old and have long been broken.
In addition, the intra-district roads are already in a disrepair due to the contractor’s heavy machinery driving materials. We wade in mud up to our ears even in the slightest rain. However, we are willing to endure all this for the sake of the improvement of the neighborhood.
Unfortunately, what we observe every day is that this will be another incompetently and poorly executed project, in which some 10 million of the European and Bulgarian taxpayers will sink.”
We passed the signals to the mayor of the “Central” district Georgi Stamenov. Together with the technical manager of the site, he made an immediate on-site inspection. The strip of pavement around the block was done by the contractor. In the project, which is being implemented by the Plovdiv municipality, however, no new pavement has really been installed in front of all the entrances.
“People are right to be indignant because there is no aesthetics. I will find a way with funds from the region to purchase flooring. I hope that when the budget is adopted, a large municipality will reimburse the amount. According to the technical manager, the space is not large, about 500-600 square meters,” commented Stamenov.
