By the end of the month, a full inspection of the Asparuhov Bridge will be commissioned, the chairman of the Road Infrastructure Agency, Eng. Yordan Valchev, said today in Varna to the participants in a round table dedicated to the future of the structure. According to him, the task will be assigned to the National Center for Territorial Development. According to Valchev, the results of the inspection should be known within three to four months, after which a decision will be made on what repairs need to be done.
For the moment, there is nothing worrying about the condition of the structure, Valchev pointed out. According to him, before more serious repairs are undertaken, the surfacing must be fixed, which could happen this year. Valchev emphasized that he is more concerned that traffic on the bridge will be extremely difficult when more serious repairs are started. According to him, about 50,000 vehicles pass through the structure per day - about 25,000 in one direction. If one lane is closed for repairs, the other cannot handle the traffic and there will be huge traffic jams, the chairman of the API pointed out, according to whom it is necessary to think about alternative options and redirecting part of the traffic.
The host of the round table for the future of the Asparuhov Bridge was Varna Municipality. Members of parliament from different parties, municipal councilors, representatives of the Navy, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the maritime community, and civil organizations participated in the discussion. Among the participants were the chairman of the Municipal Council in Varna, Hristo Dimitrov, and the mayor, Blagomir Kotsev. The final report of the created working group, whose task was to clarify the technical condition of the structure, was also presented at the meeting. The data was presented by the chairman of the transport commission in the Municipal Council, Georgi Kulinski. He pointed out that it is necessary to allocate funds in the Varna budget this year for the construction of an intelligent traffic management system on the bridge. According to him, work is also underway to determine the best options for redirecting traffic when the serious repair of the structure begins. Among them are a clapper bridge, the construction of a tunnel, the construction of a new bridge, and the provision of water transport.