Contrary to the quality of the Chinese construction of the Montenegrin highway

Contradictory is the information on the quality of 41 kilometers of the first section of the highway in Montenegro, which is being built by the Chinese company China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) and which, according to the latest announcements from the Government, should be completed by the end of the year, after more than six and a half years is .

Cracks, the appearance of a larger amount of water during heavy rains, poor installation of concrete and hanging fans on surfaces without reinforcement, are just some of the problems of building tunnels on the Bar - Boljare highway, whose main contractor is CRBC, according to the free access to information was given to the non-governmental organization Action for Social Justice.

On the other hand, in Monteput, the company of the Government of Montenegro, whose Commission controls the works on the highway, claims for Radio Free Europe (RFE) that the published analysis is not in line with the situation on the ground, ie that the situation in the tunnels is regular.

Radio Free Europe contacted the competent Ministry of Capital Investments, but they told us that they did not want to comment on the allegations published by the non-governmental organization Action for Social Justice and that they would announce themselves later.

We also sent a request to the Chinese CRBC to comment on the findings from the Analysis, but we did not receive any answers.

The engineers of the French-Italian consortium Ingerop-Geodata, which also controls the field work, did not answer the calls either.

Omissions of the Chinese contractor according to the documents of the Action

As the director of the non-governmental organization Action for Social Justice Ines Mrdović pointed out for RSE, the documentation in their possession concerns the problem of building 16 tunnels on the section of the Smokovac-Mateševo highway, where many major problems were detected by mid-summer this year.

"One of the problems is the poor installation of concrete in the tunnels, various cracks in almost all tunnels. A significant problem is that during heavy rains, large water appears on the upper edges of the tunnel, as well as on the lower part. Concrete curbs and installations inside the tunnel are also a problem. The fans are hooked in tunnels on surfaces where there is no reinforcement, "Mrdović emphasized.

As he states, it is questionable how stable the construction of these tunnels is.

"There are a large number of open issues and problems that are stated in the documentation, and, at least until the summer, CRBC did not investigate the cause and did not submit studies to the

competent commissions on what the cause is." It was emphasized in the finding that the competent inspections that control the works of the Chinese company CRBC, as the main contractor, pointed out the problem and ordered them to improve the condition of the concrete, "said Mrdović.

She claims that the Chinese company performed works contrary to the main construction project.

Among other things, the Government considers that this is one of the key reasons that led to the delay in the realization of the work that is entering its seventh year.

"They were late in providing a sufficient amount of units, in mobilizing personnel and equipment for electrical and mechanical works, primarily for tunnels," Mrdović added.

Considering that the analysis covered the situation until the summer, Mrdović states that they asked for additional documentation on whether something had been corrected in the meantime, but that they did not receive the data.

“Certainly from this documentation it can be seen that these are big problems and one gets the impression that the Chinese company is not in a hurry to solve some problems. In any case, the deadline that the Government announced earlier, that at least the construction and key works will be completed by the end of November, I doubt will happen, "Mrdović concluded.

Monteput claims that the situation is regular, the Ministry and CRBC have no comment

On the other hand, in Monteput, one of the commissions that control the works on the highway, claim that the published analysis is not in line with the situation on the ground, ie that the situation in the tunnels is regular.

"The control of the works is performed by the French-Italian consortium, and we (Monteput) control the work of that consortium. "Certificates for concrete are done by two accredited laboratories, and the third is ours", states the director of Monteput, Jonuz Mujević, for RSE.

He assumes that the analysis covered the period when tunnels were drilled and when there was water or embankments.

"But it's all just during the works. After that, we have all the assurances and certificates that it is about the quality required by the project. Today, the situation in the tunnels is regular. There is no water they mention. "Almost 97 percent of the construction works have been completed," claims Mujević.

Today, he says, the asphalting of the highway is being completed, and mechanical installations in the tunnels are being worked on, "so it's really not like they said."

The job of building the highway was agreed upon by the previous government, led by the Democratic Party of Socialists. After the parliamentary elections in August 2020, negotiations with Chinese partners were taken over by the Government of Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapić, which was formed at the beginning of December by the Democratic Front, Democrats and the civic movement URA.

One of the last statements of the Minister of Capital Investments, Mladen Bojanic, is that the construction works on the section of the Bar-Boljare highway will be completed on November 30, which, as he said, does not mean that the road will be in function from that date.

"It takes time to import everything - toll ramps, test the system. The rest depends on the technical acceptance. "Now the dynamics of submitting the documentation is better, the dilemma remains whether it will be possible to go into a trial phase, for which I cannot guarantee that it will be November 30," said Bojanic.

On November 1, Bojanic met with the Chinese ambassador to Montenegro, Liu Jin, and it can be seen from the brief joint statement that one of the topics was the construction of the highway.

Construction of part of the highway is entering its seventh year

The construction of the priority section of the highway on the Bar-Boljare route in the length of 42 kilometers, from Smokovac (Podgorica) to Mateševo (Kolašin) is the largest infrastructure project in the history of Montenegro.

The complete arrangement between Montenegro and China was initially estimated at 809 million dollars, and subsequently the price was increased by about 90 million due to the construction of access roads and infrastructure.

The construction contract with CRBC was signed by the previous Government of the Democratic Party of Socialists, and the first installment of the loan was repaid by the new Government of Zdravko Krivokapić on July 21. The second installment for the highway is due in January 2022.

From the beginning, the construction caused controversy due to insufficient transparency, currency risk, because the deal was originally agreed in dollars, but also the cost of building a kilometer of road. Thus, Prime Minister Krivokapić stated that Montenegro pays nine million euros per kilometer more than Serbia.

In recent years, the European Union has repeatedly warned of the danger to the Montenegrin economic system due to the loans that Montenegro took from Chinese banks.

In late March, the EU expressed readiness to help Montenegro find a solution to repay its debt. In July, the Montenegrin government implemented a "hedging arrangement" with Western partners,

on the basis of which interest was saved and the first installment of 29 million euros was returned to the Chinese Exim Bank, in July this year.

Regarding environmental problems, especially in the Tara River region, which was caused by the Chinese CRBC during construction, the Network for Affirmation of the Non-Governmental Sector (MANS) and several other non-governmental organizations have filed criminal charges for the devastation of Tara.

The Chinese company CRBC started the construction of the first section of the highway from Podgorica to Kolasin in 2015. The original deadline for the completion of works was 2019, but it was postponed several times.