The sidewalks in Chisinau have been repaired together with a number of streets, but large sections of sidewalks are yet impassable because they are seriously damaged. The local authorities admit to the existence of this problem, but cannot provide information about the state of sidewalks given the absence of a complex study. Moreover, these argue that they cannot intervene to repair a large part of the infrastructure as the networks should be rehabilitated first so as not to double the workload and costs.

Contacted by IPN, head of the municipal road maintenance company “Exdrupo” Stefan Racu said that 5 million lei has been allocated for the repair of sidewalks in Chisinau this year. The pedestrian alley of Mircea cel Batran Blvd is repaired also with this money. If money was allotted for each square meter, considerable amounts would be needed for the purpose.

Stefan Racu said that during five years of service in the system, he saw no complex study to be carried out to assess the state of sidewalks and of the infrastructure, in general. A pre-feasibility study was performed several years ago, but this was superficial and covered only the main streets. It was then determined that 30 streets were in a bad state of repair, in particular the roadway. Designing works were launched in the period, but these weren’t completed.

The company’s head noted he repeatedly proposed assessing the state of infrastructure in the city according to the technical parameters, as the State Road Administration did in relation to the areas located outside Chisinau. But the shortage of funds was invoked every time.

According to the functionary, such a complex assessment would enable to get a complete picture and it would be much easier to bring the infrastructure into a satisfactory state. There are yet the networks located under the roadway and sidewalks. When “Exdrupo” decides to carry out rehabilitation works, the institutions that manage the networks request to first repair these and then to intervene on the surface.

Stefan Racu said there are sidewalks in Chisinau that are in a very bad condition and these are ignored because there are practically no pedestrians there. The people can report problems related to the state of infrastructure to the district head’s office or the Transport and Communications Division and tell the addresses. The situation is examined and “Exdrupo” is asked to intervene.