Mayor Pencho Milkov proposed measures to alleviate the heavy goods traffic around Ruse

Tuesday, 19 November 2024

A working meeting was held in the building of the Municipality of Ruse, initiated by the Regional Governor Dragomir Draganov, during which a number of measures to reduce heavy goods traffic in the area of the Danube Bridge border checkpoint were discussed. It was attended by Mayor Pencho Milkov, Deputy Governor Georgi Georgiev and representatives of the State Automobile Administration, Regional Directorate of the Ministry of Interior, Traffic Police Sector at the Regional Directorate of the Ministry of Interior, Road Infrastructure Agency, BGTOL, Regional Road Administration, as well as business representatives. "All state institutions must be committed to solving the problems with traffic at the border. It is high time to show that our city is not a place where heavy trucks can spend unlimited time, hindering the free movement of citizens," said the mayor of Ruse Municipality. Pencho Milkov presented a number of measures to ease traffic and reduce accidents in the area of the Danube Bridge.

Among them are better organization of routes and the stay of heavy trucks. According to the mayor, all facilities should work with a single mechanism for the passage of heavy trucks across the border, and this can happen with the assistance of the border authorities.

According to Pencho Milkov, the lack of signboards to the smaller parking lots in the area of the Danube Bridge border checkpoint is a serious disadvantage and the companies that manage them need to allocate their own funds for their placement on the road section. "Ruse has a very large resource for parking heavy trucks, which is currently not used optimally. The unification of the access regime of all truck parking lots and the good communication between them will help immensely to unclog the traffic," the mayor added.

Pencho Milkov undertook to develop additional road signs and horizontal markings to mark the places prohibited for stopping heavy goods vehicles at the entry and exit points of the Ruse. According to him, insufficient marking is a prerequisite for the accumulation of trucks on the road arteries, which subsequently becomes more difficult for law enforcement to regulate.

"The Municipality of Ruse can allocate funds from its own budget for hiring translators in several languages in order to facilitate the sanctioning of foreign violators. A campaign within a month will have an educational effect on both domestic drivers and those who pass through the country from other countries," said the mayor.

The participants in the working meeting united around the idea that a percentage of the fees collected for crossing the Ruse-Giurgiu border should remain for the municipality of Ruse. Currently, the state budget allocates amounts for a kilometer of national road, with which the local administration covers the costs of repairing the sections compromised by heavy traffic. Thus, these funds cannot be used to improve other parts of the road network, which also need to be strengthened. Mayor Pencho Milkov said that he continues to insist to the Ministry of Finance to develop a new methodology for border towns and those through which increased heavy traffic passes to receive more funds from the state budget for road infrastructure.

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