With reference to Bulgarian roads. On a recent trip I picked up a brand new hire car at Bourgas Airport to drive to Dobrich. Anybody who has done that trip will know that the road between the Airport and Varna (twists and turns)is a complete contrast (fairly dead straight) than between Varna and Dobrich

Having got up a bit of speed on the Dobrich approach road and at 10.30pm I hit, not a pothole but a b****y great crater which left me with a square nearside front wheel. My Son who is in the car trade took off the wheel and replaced it with the spare, looked at the wheel and said, that is a right off job Dad

The next day somebody told me about a specialist in Dobrich who makes square wheels round again so I took it to him and 30minutes later I had what looked like a new wheel which is now back in the boot as the spare. The total cost for repair, putting the tyre back on and balancing the wheel, 14leva. A bargain

I think the wheel specialist is on a winner and never lightly to go out of business

Got to agree with you willowsend the roads in BG are terrible in most places but to make it worse there is very little street lighting so you have no chance of avoiding them at night, I'm surprised there isn't more and more visitors to BG that are not in a fatal accident because of this :Very sad:but all we can hope is that the government get their act together sooner than later

Your so very right the roads are a disgrace and its about time that they did something about it they certainly have had enough from the EU so what are they doing with it I wonder

Daisy wrote:

but all we can hope is that the government get their act together sooner than later

I agree, the roads are dreadful ... however, rather than blame everything on the government and such, why not first of all get everyone to pay tax on their earnings like the rest of the EU?

Recently we had a roof problem ... fortunately we were insured to have it repaired ... could we get a roofing company to give us an invoice (which we needed for the insurance)? No!

'Cash Only' was all we heard ... time and time and time again (and not just the roof, we've come across this thousands of time in Bulgaria, just we happened to need an invoice on this occasion).

Perhaps when people start paying tax on what they earn, then we'll see some roads fixed.

Rant Over!

(PS. My Bulgarian neighbours think I'm crazy for refusing to work 'on the black' for cash and declaring all my income, but are the first ones to moan about the state of the roads)

Lets remember what we pay in poll tax here compaired to the uk.mine this year was 35 Lev,so if i had to buy a few pairs of tyres its still cheap,and the donkey and carts dont complain,and to be honest neither do i,eu can stay out as far as i am concerned

i pay 22 levs municipality tax, thats good. but i also pay the municipality 650 lev car tax for a toyota 2 litre ( over 2 yr old) in balchik, but if i lived in vt it would be less than 400 levs. and the vinnette 67 levs. then theres car insurance 150 levs, and if your fully comprehensive thats another 1, 800 levs. i would like to see some roads in a nice condition. thats a lot of money.

starlite wrote:

i pay 22 levs municipality tax, thats good. but i also pay the municipality 650 lev car tax for a toyota 2 litre ( over 2 yr old) in balchik, but if i lived in vt it would be less than 400 levs. and the vinnette 67 levs. then theres car insurance 150 levs, and if your fully comprehensive thats another 1, 800 levs. i would like to see some roads in a nice condition. thats a lot of money.

the girls got a good point there... ! If less went in their pockets and the money got used for what it was meant for ,there may one day be decent roads ...but , I wont hold my breath.

We went from Yambol to Bourgas yesterday and the holes that were repaired back in May have returned but are bigger. In fact there is one so big in Yambol that when it rains you now have to catch a ferry to get across it

I have been driving around for the last month (now back in London) and yes i agree that a lot of the back roads are in a bad way but the bigger roads are much improved, the road from Bourgas towards Plovdiv is good as is the road from Karlova to Plovdiv. The motorway from Plovdiv to Sofia is not up to UK standards but its not too bad.

mickhev wrote:

Lets remember what we pay in poll tax here compaired to the uk.mine this year was 35 Lev,so if i had to buy a few pairs of tyres its still cheap,and the donkey and carts dont complain,and to be honest neither do i,eu can stay out as far as i am concerned

It's alright for you Mike. You can go to the airport or do your supermarket shopping using a mini-digger, so no problems for you, but for us poor folks that don't have the advantage of owning a mini-digger, not so good

:shocked1:Am I missing something here 'roads' I can't remember seeing any roads in BG I saw lots of massive dug out squares which lead me to believe they are working out how to build a huge jigsaw puzzle or perhaps maze. It's really hit and miss with the on coming traffic on the Dobrich road.

Oddy

[size=55:jxxr5qml]BNR

Bulgaria’s road infrastructure to be improved progressively



After the massive construction of highways in this country, now it is turn of the so-called first-, second- and third-class roads. A total of 3,100 km from the national road network will be repaired by the end of 2012 with funding under different programs, as the entire territory of Bulgaria is 111,000 km2. The ministry of regional development and public works promises more secure and pleasant trips along the roads in less than 2 years.
Currently Bulgaria is one of the states with worst road infrastructure in Europe. The lack of road signs, damaged pavements and deep holes are a challenge even for the most experienced drivers. The poor condition of the road network literally creates access difficulties for hundreds of settlements, thus slowing down the economic development of entire regions… and pushing tourists away from some of the most emblematic cultural and historical sites. In the summer road traffic to Bulgarian sea resorts goes drastically up, along, of course, with traffic collisions. The government took up the task for completion of several highways. However, Bulgaria does not consist only of highways! – Minister of Regional Development Rosen Plevneliev said before journalists, adding that the condition of Bulgarian second-class roads has been dramatically worsening since 1984.

It turns out that some remote parts of the network have not been repaired since 1971! Some 35 percent of the road infrastructure is in a very poor condition, according to data from the ministry. The reason, Minister Plevneliev says, lies in the fact that over the years the repair funds have been “offensive”. Now we have provided much more money for that purpose for 2011 – some 4-5 times more than in 2007 for instance, the minister said and added:

“If we take into consideration the new construction, in 2011 the Road Agency will have to spent a total of EUR 550 mln. for the infrastructure of this country. We start a really large scaled program. These are 76 parallel projects that will built 6 times more roads than in the last 8-9 years.”

The improvement of Bulgaria’s road infrastructure is funded by the national budget, the World Bank and mostly by the EU funds. In the meantime the Road Infrastructure Agency calmed down the Black Sea tourists that the repairs will take into consideration the intensive summer traffic.

“Basically the sectors have been selected in a manner that wouldn’t allow the construction activities to create difficulties for the traffic towards the seaside. said Lazar Lazarov from the Road Infrastructure Agency. However, detours will be provided for those parts, where repair works will take place, but these detours will be short ones and not endless as they used to be in the past. Wherever such routes are not provided the repairs will be on the move.”

Sounds like a step in the right direction lets hope they spend the money in the right place and not pocket it