The most important artery in Moldova, Ştefan cel Mare Boulevard, is in a deplorable state. It has surface deformations at bus stations, forcing drivers to avoid those lanes and destroyed sewers surrounded by deteriorating asphalt. And all of this is in spite of the fact that the boulevard has been repaired as part of an 11.5 million euro project that came with great promises.

Officially, the works were completed almost two years ago, but the authorities and the contractor have yet to sign the final acceptance report. However, according to the contract, the deadline for remedying the non-conformities expired on November 30, 2018.

ZdG consulted several documents reporting the surface defects and deformations on the most popular boulevard of the country. We found that, during this period, although the non-conformities were visible, the managers who succeeded each other at the Directorate of Transport, did not comply with requests to consult an independent expert to determine the party responsible for the deterioration.

December 3, 2013: Chișinău City Hall announced an international tender for the repair of three central streets: Ștefan cel Mare Boulevard, Vasile Alecsandri Street and Negruzzi Boulevard.

May 2014: The Romanian company SC Delta ACM 93 SA  won the tender. The company committed to complete the works within 12 months, at the price of 11.5 million euros. Chișinău City Hall borrowed most of the money from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the European Union’s Special Green Energy Fund (ESF) and the European Investment Bank (EIB).

266,182 euros (5.27 million lei) for the project

Earlier, on October 15, 2012, the General Directorate for Public Transport and Communications (DGTPCC), which was to manage the rehabilitation of the streets, designated the municipal enterprise Chișinăuproiect to draft a project of rehabilitation of the three arteries, following a tender. 266,182 euros (5.27 million lei) were allocated from the municipal budget for the project.

According to the contract signed after the auction, the rehabilitation of the three streets was to start in the summer of 2014 and to last 12 months. However the works on Ștefan cel Mare Boulevard only partially began in the second part of 2015 and were resumed at the beginning of 2016. 

“I apologize to the citizens for the inconvenience, but we will have a beautiful, European boulevard, and we’ll be proud of it,” Dorin Chirtoacă, Mayor of Chișinău, promised in September 2016.

Two years after the works ended: the final acceptance act is still not signed

In October 2017 the repair works ended but without an official announcement from the authorities. On October 16, 2017, Nistor Grozavu, who for several months held the position of interim mayor after Dorin Chirtoacă was suspended from office, said that there will be no official inauguration of the three streets that year.

“There won’t be an official inauguration. After the works are completed, the statement will be signed … A special commission that deals with this, made of specialists and an official from the local public administration, is responsible for the respective field. After one year, after all the non-conformities are cleared, there could be a final reception. I repeat: could be. This does not mean that it will necessarily be done, if all the non-conformities are not eliminated. At the moment, all these non-conformities are pointed out. It remains for the contractor, together with the Directorate of Transport and the consultant, to do the work,” stated Nistor Grozavu.

Almost two years after the completion of the works, Ştefan cel Mare Boulevard, as well as Negruzzi Boulevard and Vasile Alecsandri Street have not been officially put into operation and the documents accepting the works have not been signed. Meanwhile, only a few months after the completion of the works on Ştefan cel Mare Boulevard, the first cracks began to appear. Over time, the authorities’ indifference amplified the problems. 

Today, in the areas around the public transport stations on the boulevard, one can easily see ruttings and deformations several centimeters deep, which makes the drivers avoid using these lanes. At the same time, the asphalt has surged around several rainwater receivers (storm drains) and  the racks have been displaced from their original place.

Expert: “It’s a complex fault”

“Over time, these ruts are getting deeper and causing great problems for cars. They contribute to the accumulation of water; in other places the passengers are splashed. The main problem is that project data developed through 2011-2012 was used to design the road structure on the road side. The works being carried out in 2016-2017, with the flow of trolleybuses doubled, showed that the road side does not resist, especially during the hot period of the year. This causes these deformations on the road,” considers Andrei Ababii, D.Sc., an engineer in the field of road infrastructure.

The expert believes that the blame for the situation lies with all the parties involved in this project. “The fault is complex. First of all, I think the design theme was not really formulated… In European cities, bus stations are built away from the carriageway. This is the solution to ensure long-term stability. There are technical solutions too. Part of the roadway is cut and replaced with concrete made especially for roads,” says Ababii.

Delta ACM 93, the first to report the problems

August 30, 2017: Representatives of the company that carried out the works, Delta ACM 93, were the first to report the problems on Ștefan cel Mare Boulevard, shortly after it was repaired. The project manager, Dumitrel Mutu-Necula, addressed a letter to the General Directorate for Public Transport and Communications (DGTPCC) and EGIS International (the company selected to supervise the works), informing them that “there was a visible deformation due to the deep failure of the road system.” The representative of Delta asked “to convene a meeting with the designer as soon as possible, on the spot, in order to establish and issue a solution to this problem.”

September 5, 2017: DGTPCC deputy head Vitalie Butucel requested from EGIS “a detailed examination of the degradation of the asphalt cover in the areas of public transport waiting stations and in the areas of rainwater receivers on Ștefan cel Mare Boulevard, establishing the causes of those degradations, and issuing solutions for remediation.”

September 19, 2017: Following the site visit, EGIS responded to Oleg Poiată, the Head of DGTPCC, saying that  “a preventive finding would be the loss of the carrying capacity of the existing road system.” At the same time, they stated that at the joint meeting of September 5, 2017, DGTPCC with the support of Chișinăuproiect will examine in detail, within a reasonable time the layers of the existing road system and the technical resistance of the materials. 

November 30, 2017:  Oleg Poiată leaves the position of head of the DGTPCC after several conflicts with interim mayor Silvia Radu. He was replaced by Vitalie Butucel, one of the deputies of the Directorate.

An unacknowledged expertise of 2,020 euros (40,000 lei) 

March 28, 2018: Vitalie Butucel, interim head of the General Directorate for Public Transport and Communications (DGTPCC), addressed Delta ACM 93 and EGIS, requesting the initiation of investigation procedures, “in order to establish the circumstances and causes of the appearance of defects on Ștefan cel Mare Boulevard, at the public transport waiting stations and in the intersection areas”; exactly as he had requested on September 5, 2017, when he was deputy chief.

August 1, 2018: At the request of DGTPCC, the Testing Laboratory within the State Administration of Roads (ASD) takes samples from the base and the wear layer of several public transport waiting stations on Ștefan cel Mare Boulevard and Negruzzi Boulevard. During the same period, the representatives of the City Hall announced that the results of the tests will be made public. However, no results have been shared.

Petru Talpă, the head of the ASD Testing Laboratory, told ZdG that the tests requested by the DGTPCC in August 2018 were performed and the results were transmitted to the DGTPCC. He pointed out that the institution he runs only tested of surface layers of concrete-asphalt. “That’s what the Directorate asked for. This type of testing is included in our list of services. We have no ability to investigate the geodesy or geology of a foundation. There are special laboratories for this. We did not and could not verify the foundation or the project,” Talpă said. 2,020 euros (40,000 lei) were paid from the budget allocated to DGTPCC for this test.

The directorate requested an independent expert

October 18, 2018: The DGTPCC, under interim head Vitalie Butucel, addressed a letter to the EGIS stating that “following the laboratory investigation, on August 1, 2018, samples were taken from the public transport waiting stations and the road deformations.” He also requested the “presentation of all documents related to the approval, verification, and certification of materials used in the project (asphalt mix) and other relevant documents relating to the defects examined.”

October 30, 2018: DGTPCC, EGIS, Delta, EBRD, ASD and Chișinăuproiect attended a joint meeting, where EGIS argued that “the non-conformities have not been completely remedied, but, since most of the works are not complicated, they can be completed by the end of the repair period; by November 30, 2018.”

It was also stated that “complex works such as waiting stations on Ștefan cel Mare Boulevard and the bus station on Negruzzi Boulevard, as well as surface depressions on the intersections, will only be able to be executed after the designer has issued a technical remediation solution.”

At the meeting, the stages of remedying the deformations that appeared in the waiting stations were established. The beneficiary, that is DGTPCC, was going to contract a technical expert. The expert’s report, containing conclusions and recommendations regarding the remediation solutions were to reach Chișinăuproiect, requesting they develop a remediation project. Finally, the remediation project had to reach the contractor (Delta ACM 93) for the execution of the works. “All these steps must be taken as soon as possible, because the period of defects remediation expires on November 30,” reported the minutes of the progress meeting on October 30, 2018.

30 November, 2018: deadline to remedy the non-conformities

November 9, 2018. Manuela Copcea, contract manager at EGIS, addressed the DGTPCC, reminding them of the need for independent technical expertise based on in-depth tests and probing. She stated, repeatedly, that on the basis of the previous test results on the upper asphalt layers, carried out by the General Directorate for Public Transport and Communications (DGTPCC) (on August 1, 2018), no conclusions can be drawn as to whether the deformations appeared because of inadequate execution of the works or inappropriate materials used by Delta ACM. Meanwhile, on November 30, 2018 the one-year period from the completion of the works passed, and the designated period for the beneficiary to remedy the deficiencies expired.

December 15, 2018: Vitalie Butucel, the head of the DGTPCC, ignored the decisions taken at the meeting held on October 30, where it was agreed that the Beneficiary (DGTPCC) would contract without delay an independent technical expert for a detailed expertise, which EGIS, as it was stated in their letter of November 9, considered essential. On December 15, 2018, Butucel asked EGIS to communicate the engineer’s decision regarding the defects at the bus stations “taking into account the laboratory tests, the results of which had previously been submitted for examination.” Subsequently the EGIS representatives had to consider the old expertise which they repeatedly declared inoperable and insufficient. 

February 7, 2019: After a near two-month pause in communication between EGIS and DGTPCC, on February 7, 2019, consultations were held with the participation of representatives of the two entities. The contractor’s representatives (Delta ACM 93) were not present at the consultations, nor did they respond to the invitation letters. During the meeting, DGTPCC representatives stated that there are no “grounds for organizing and attending the Final Acceptance Committee meeting for the streets in package 1” and that, on November 30, 2018, the deadline for remediation of defects expired. 

The consultant (EGIS), referring to the non-conformities in the stations, recalled that they repeatedly presented their opinion on the “urgent need to get probing from the existing basic layers, where, according to the initial project, the Contractor was not involved.” In addition, the Consultant mentioned that if the Beneficiary cannot provide the probing (expertise, ed. note), as was previously promised, the Engineer may involve the Contractor in performing the necessary tests, as well as an independent expert.

New boss, old problems and an American company without a name

February 14, 2019: Following Butucel’s letter, dated December 15, 2018, as well as the consultation session on February 7, 2019, the EGIS engineer informed DGTPCC that the defects found at the completion of works stage and during the warranty period can be remedied by the Directorate by contracting a third party company, the costs being paid out of the remaining amount owed to Delta ACM 93. Regarding the defects in the public transport waiting stations, it is repeatedly stated that the Beneficiary did not contract an independent expert for the expertise of all layers, including the foundation. Under these conditions, the engineer proposed two solutions to the Contractors: to perform the necessary tests to determine the causes of the ruts and deformations or “to restore to the quotas of the project the executed works, by cutting and repairing the damaged areas,” setting the deadline for March 31, 2019.

May 2, 2019. A new meeting took place on the subject of defects in the stations on Ștefan cel Mare and Negruzzi boulevards. At the meeting, DGTPCC was represented by the new Head of the Directorate, Octavian Lungu, and his deputy, Oleg Caraman. They informed about a “collaboration contract with an American company for technical expertise,” which took samples from the surface layers of asphalt concrete and, if necessary, from the lower layers of the road system, by conducting studies.  However, the minutes of the meeting do not provide the name of the expert nor of the American company that was going to do the testing. The same minutes report that the Beneficiary decided to organize the taking of evidence by probing, with the participation of representatives of all parties involved, on the days of May 6-7 or May 20-24, 2019. The testing was not done this time either.

The return to office of a head of directorate, dismissed six years before: “There is no clarity in the acts.”

On July 12, 2019, Adrian Boldurescu returned to the position of head of the DGTPCC after six years, through a provision signed by the interim mayor, Adrian Talmaci. Previously, in March, after several trials, the Chișinău Court decided to cancel the order issued by Dorin Chirtoacă regarding Boldurescu. “What we found about the EBRD project or Ștefan cel Mare Boulevard, Negruzzi Boulevard and Alecsandri Street, is a problem at the moment. There is no clarity in the documents,” Boldurescu said.

“It is clear from the documents that things did not move these two and a half – three years. Each new director who came chose to start from scratch, not getting into the essence of things … It is certain that, today, we have no expertise, we will request it, to see which way we can go forward,” said Boldurescu, stating that the general contractor did not receive the full amount of money from the contract – about half a million euros were still remaining in their accounts. 

At the same time, Boldurescu states that he did not even find in the repair record of the three streets the tests promised by DGTPCC in August 2018 – only some sketches that did not reach any conclusion.

“It is important for us, because there is some money withheld, we want to know how we can use it and if we can retain it, invoking that there are violations or deviations in the construction norms. Without such expertise, we do not know which way to go next. If the expertise determines that it is the designer’s mistake in the load bearing capacity, then the municipality, that is, the Design Institute, which is a municipal enterprise, must be held responsible and it should pay; seek money for remediation. If it is determined that the Delta company is guilty and the mistake relates to the asphalt layers that have been changed, then we can use the money that has not yet been paid or go to trial. 

In my opinion, two years is too long a period to do nothing. I really do not understand. We should find out who’s responsible. Not we, you or the law enforcement bodies. I think it would be appropriate for someone to explain and clarify the problem: Is it based on negligence, incompetence or [some] other criteria? Someone else is to find it out,” Boldurescu pointed out.

Explanations from a former head of the Transport Directorate

Vitalie Butucel, the head of DGTPCC from 2017-2019 (the period when the problems with Ștefan cel Mare Boulevard should have been addressed) claimed that the role of the Directorate in this process was a formal one, and the companies EGIS and Delta ACM 93 were the ones that had to solve the problem. Butucel also said that the 2018 tests done by the ASD Laboratory were not accurate.

“We only took samples from the road side, to see what their structure is, why the layers are deformed. This cannot be called testing. No testing of Ștefan cel Mare Boulevard has ever been undertaken,”Butucel claimed.

Why, was there no complex testing of all layers, as the EGIS consultant repeatedly asked? “Nobody complained, everyone was satisfied.  EGIS signed and accepted the works, Delta’s money was transferred to the company account and, in the end, somehow, explanations are needed [as to] why we did not undertake an independent test.

The construction company and the engineering company, which have more obligations, had to take all the actions to see why these things happened,” Butucel replied, saying that the testing was not the DGTPCC’s responsibility, but rather EGIS was to “propose contracting a renowned international company.” 

The head of the DGTPCC during the repairs to the three streets was Igor Gamreţki, a former classmate of the former mayor of Chișinău, Dorin Chirtoacă.

DELTA –  in insolvency. The designer is awaiting test results. 

In the meantime, the Delta ACM 93 company has gone into insolvency in Romania, so things have become very uncertain. 

“At the beginning of July, we were informed by a court in Bucharest that we have the right to file a validation claim against Delta. The first meeting has not taken place yet, the process is in preparation,” said Adrian Talmaci, interim mayor of Chișinău. 

He claimed that, this fall, the municipality is prepared to intervene to remedy the problems on the main artery of the city. “If we do not intervene now, after the winter, the situation will be even worse,” the interim mayor predicted.

At the same time, the entities responsible for the implementation and management of the project either avoid discussing or claim they are not guilty.

 ZdG’s attempted to talk to representatives of Delta ACM 93 but they did not respond to our messages. The representatives of EGIS company did not respond either. Nor did Pavel Untură, the former Deputy Minister of Transport in Tarlev’s Government, who was the resident engineer responsible for the project. Untură and other EGIS employees received tens of thousands of euros to supervise the rehabilitation works of the three streets. 

“Chișinăuproiect developed the project documentation for the rehabilitation of Ștefan cel Mare Boulevard in accordance with the regulations in force. The project was verified by specialists in the field, it was examined by consultants from EBRD, there were no objections and the project was further transmitted to the beneficiary for execution. We do not know the cause of the deformations that have appeared. In order to find out the cause, it is necessary for the beneficiary to request a complex test of the places where these deformations occurred,” said the chief engineer Ion Paciu, voicing the position of the Municipal Design Institute Chișinăuproiect.

Victor MOŞNEAG, v.mosneag.zdg@gmail.com