Putevi Srbije: Rehabilitation of Gazela bridge prior to February 8th

- Repair of the supporting pillar of Gazela bridge in Belgrade will be finished prior to February 8th - said the CEO of public company Putevi Srbija, Zoran Drobnjak, and pointed out that traffic on the bridge was completely safe at the moment.

- Rehabilitation of the bridge will last 15 days, 10 to 12 days of which will be spent on preparations, while welding of cracks will take 2 to 3 days - he told Beta agency and added that Putevi Srbija would set aside 17m RSD for those works.

As he explained, welding of cracks, which are discovered during the regular control of the bridge that takes place every month or two, will start the next weekend.

Drobnjak repeated that Putevi Srbije, in association with the traffic police and the Secretariat of Transportation of Belgrade, forbidden the trucks with the capacity of over 3.5 tons to cross the bridge to New Belgrade out of precaution.

They also forbidden the use of the middle lane to New Belgrade and set the speed limit of 40 km/h in other two lanes in that direction.

The CEO of Putevi Srbije said that the first, big reconstruction of Gazela bridge may start in March, but he pointed out that everything depended on the decision of the Board of Directors of the bank creditor, which would be held at the end of February.

- Reconstruction of the bridge will cost about 60m EUR, and I will go to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) on February 11th to speak to its CEO and try to persuade him to grant us the loan of the European Investment Bank (EIB) for reconstruction of the bridge until we realize the action plan for relocation of Roma people from under the bridge - said he.

Drobnjak says that, in addition to 33m EUR that EIB have already approved, the negotiations on approval of rest of the funds, which are necessary after the price of reconstruction was increased, are expected to be resumed soon.

According to his words, the plan is that reconstruction takes 22 months and that, among the rest, 2,200 tons of armature and steel be built in the bridge, as well as that fence be repaired and new insulation and asphalt made.