ArmInfo. Prime Minister of Armenia Karen Karapetyan expressed dissatisfaction with the order of construction work on bridges within the framework of the North-South project. "At 09.30 in the morning there are no workers on the bridges, and at 17.30 there are all smoke breaks. On my questions they answer, "We are keeping within the deadlines". If so work, shorten the time No work is done there", he told during a government meeting Martha.
According to the Prime Minister, there are numerous engineering works on the same bridges that can be solved not on the ground, but outside the construction zone. The prime minister urged all governors in their fields to approach the issue very harshly - extremely harshly. "I understand that this is a problem of the contractor organization, but then it is necessary to formalize the contract in such a way so that it was then possible to track it", Karapetyan said.
Already after the meeting of the government, Deputy Minister of Transport, Communications and IT of Armenia Artur Araqelyan explained that the construction work on the bridges is realized at the expense saved in the framework of the North-South project, which allowed to modernize these infrastructures. "Proceeding from this, we were forced to take the main work according to the clause of the agreement, and only after that it was planned to build bridges", he said.
As for the talks that work on the bridges was suspended in the winter, this, as explained by the representative of the Ministry of Transport, was related to the need to ensure the safety of citizens. "The Ministry of Transport was forced to close or limit traffic at certain places, and in order to minimize traffic restrictions, some structures were manufactured not in the field, but in factories and placed on the roads already ready", Araqelyan said.
Artur Araqelyan assured the journalists that the contracts were concluded in accordance with the construction norms. "According to the agreement with the construction company, it is planned to complete the main construction works on these sites in May 2017, to open the road, and the landscaping works will be carried out after the opening of the road. But with the two bridges the contractor organization promised to open until September 2017", he stated.
To recall, on October 20, 2016 Minister of Transport, Communications and Information Infrastructures of Armenia Vahan Martirosyan told journalists that the Government of Armenia represented by the Ministry of Transport conducts an assessment of the efficiency of construction of the North-South highway in the country. As the minister said then, the study will evaluate the project's productivity. Earlier, back in July of the same year. At a Government meeting, former Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan said that the Spanish construction company has become a real evil for the North-South motorway. Abrahamyan noted that he heard rumors that the construction of the highway was delayed because of the financial problems of the Spanish company. He also stressed that the Ararat road is still "in the problems and made poor". "There are some problems with this company and I do not know with whom: They say there is no money, they were simply taken away", he said.