When will the work on the floor and the Unirii Passage begin?

The consolidation works of the floor over Dâmboviţa and the Passage from Unirii will start in 2025, the mayor of Sector 4, Daniel Băluţă, announced on Saturday.

“I am convinced that in the second half of 2024 we will complete the technical project, we will have all the necessary documentation to issue the building permit, so that in 2025 this work will actually begin. It will certainly be a work that will temporarily create discomfort for the people of Bucharest, but including this event is meant to emphasize the determining importance of the implementation of these measures to secure the Union area, both through the passage and through the floor. All people must see the level of degradation of the infrastructure elements, all people must be aware of the risk to which we are subjected, all those who pass through this area, and in this passage about 60,000 cars pass a day, all those who they use the M2 metro line, all pedestrians use the area above the overpass”, said the mayor, in a press conference.

He stated that by the end of the year, the identification of the companies that will implement those provided in the feasibility study is expected.

“Today is an extremely important day for all of us, for the people of Bucharest. We are one year away from when Sector 4 took over the Unirii Passage. One year since our community assumed the responsibility of capital repairs of these objectives of strategic importance for all of us. It was a year in which we managed to do the feasibility study, a study accompanied by all the expertise, a year in which we collaborated very well with Metrorex, with Romanian Waters, with all those who are in this extremely sensitive area from the point of view of the structure. We managed to raise the bidding procedure in SICAP and we hope that, by the end of the year, we will identify the commercial companies that will implement those provided in the feasibility study. Until June 6, the companies interested in this project will be able to submit their bids”, said the mayor.

He stated that for the works on the floor, funding was obtained from the Government.

“Perhaps more than anything, and it is a factor that demonstrates exactly the urgency of this project, is the financing obtained from the Government of Romania through an emergency ordinance, because all the state authorities reacted promptly to those indicated here, to the risks in which this structure find, basically both the floor and the passage are included in the scope of the ‘unsatisfactory’ criterion and as such the Romanian Government last month secured the financing line for the floor and the passage”, said Daniel Băluţă.

The mayor estimated that the works both on the floor of the Union and on the car tunnel will last between two and three years.

“Practically, including in the preamble of the emergency ordinance, the technical solution we are starting from is to restore both the floor and the car tunnel. How long will it last? If all things are in order, we will have a work that will last between 2 and 3 years. (…) We will identify the optimal solutions so that this torment, because it will be a torment for all of us, those who live in Bucharest, is as easy as possible to bear. We must not be afraid of words, we must be fair with people and tell them that indeed from 2025 a very difficult period is coming”, explained Băluţă.

He showed that when the works start, the manner in which the traffic areas will be closed will also be established.

“Realistically, it is impossible to close the whole area, it is very important to act piecemeal together with the specialists from the Road Brigade, together with the technical team (…) we will determine exactly what we close, when we close, how we finally rehabilitate the areas, all these details we will have from the moment of design”, the mayor also said.

Baluţă also stated that all the investment that has been made so far at Pasajul Unirii will be preserved.

“Things will be dismantled and reassembled, because these provisions are also included in the specifications that this procedure has. So, not a single lei of the money that was spent for this investment, that’s why I say it was made with these types of materials precisely so that they can be dismantled, stored, and after the work is finished, they can be reassembled”, he explained Mayor.

Univ. Assoc. Dr. Ionuţ Răcănel from the Bucharest Technical University of Construction, the team coordinator that technically expertized the two constructions, said that, structurally, “there is no interference between the two structures: the passage is a passage (…) and the floor from Unirii Square is another independent structure”.

“From a structural point of view, they do not interact. Sure, they are on the same or, let’s say, in the same area, in the center of Bucharest. From the point of view of the technical state in which the two works are found, you must know that there are some rules on the basis of which this technical state is established, and not only on the basis of some rules, so it is a more complex operation. (…) These works are old enough, they are structural elements, such as the beams that are at the top of this passage, which at the time were designed for a life span that is almost at the limit in this case, they almost they have consumed their lifetime”, mentioned Ionuţ Răcănel.

He said that, after carrying out the expertise, he recommends a new construction in the case of the Unirii floor.

“I did the expertise, together with my colleagues, with the team I worked with, and as it is done, I gave two solutions, I recommended two solutions. Of these two, we certainly went to one, at least in the case of the Unirii floor, of new construction. (…) Consulting and analyzing all the things that are involved in the realization of this new construction, we came to the conclusion that this is the best option out there. The works will not be easy to carry out, considering the traffic in Piaţa Unirii, considering that this square is transited by both pedestrians and vehicles, it is an intense area of ​​Bucharest, surely things can be thought of in such a way that the impact on people to be minimal – perhaps work will be done in areas. (…) The structure, in my opinion, needs to be revitalized with new elements of resistance”, he explained.