Vučić’s word is stronger than expertise: The Pakovraće – Požega section will be opened at any cost

04. jul. 2025.

Link to the original article: https://n1info.rs/vesti/vuciceva-rec-jaca-od-struke-deonica-pakovrace-pozega-otvara-se-po-svaku-cenu

Will the Pakovraće – Požega highway section be opened to traffic after several announcements? If you ask the President of Serbia, he does not see any obstacles. Neither does the Government, which passed the new regulation. But the engineers for expert supervision unanimously refused to sign the documents without which it is impossible for construction inspectors to issue a certificate that the section is completed.

The President of Serbia announced that by the end of 2021, vehicles would be able to travel on the road from Pakovraća to Požega. And after that, the same promises were made almost every year. This year’s Vidovdan opening was moved to the first week of July. But, from the first, it went to the second week of July.

“This is driving me crazy with the opening of the road to Požega. Every day it will be tomorrow. I expected it to be opened tomorrow. I expected it to be tomorrow, and it probably won’t be tomorrow. Whether it will be on Saturday or Sunday, it has to be by Monday. It’s no use, there’s always some paper missing because someone hasn’t signed something and now it’s all just pretense. The hill moves 0.1 millimeter, you fool it by 0.1 millimeter and I don’t know, but that’s how it goes – everyone is trying to stop the state,” said Aleksandar Vučić.

But the current state of the construction of this highway is arguably much more serious. Because the engineers have unanimously refused to sign the documents, which are a prerequisite for confirming that the section is complete. Only after that would a possible positive report from the Technical Inspection Commission follow, which is the basis for the section to be put into trial operation.

Expert supervision refused to sign documents for the Miloš Veliki highway section from Pakovrato to Požega

Highway increasingly expensive: Chinese raise price three times, Serbia borrows another 298 million euros

“In 2024, the Serbian government passed a regulation verifying the possibility of putting certain sections of the highway into trial operation. In particular, the opening of tunnels, without verifying certain supporting systems, such as signaling,” explains architect Zdenka Radovanović.

Two weeks ago, the government passed a decree that allows the tunnel to be opened without automatic monitoring, with 24-hour continuous duty. Functional and technical tests, i.e. tests of the road and equipment, still need to be carried out, and according to the decree, the deadline for this is 90 days.

The biggest problem is the Munjino Brdo tunnel. The terrain above the retaining wall, the already secured landslide near this tunnel, is subsiding, and the hill is full of water.

“You can see how much water there is. We can see that the water is constantly flowing out of the tunnel. And it goes further down into the river,” says Aleksandar Antović.

Aleksandar Antović, a resident of the village of Prilipac, which is located near this tunnel, tells N1 that engineers know how big a problem the hill through which the tunnel passes is, and how active the landslide is.

“They told us, and they didn’t dare to make it public, that they have a big problem with the landslide. It’s clear that they are still working on solving that problem. The last three years have been extremely dry, that landslide is active. The hill through which the tunnel passed is full of water,” says Antović.

According to the regulation, fire protection, video surveillance, or telecommunications in tunnels will be continuously monitored by on-duty teams until the smart automatic monitoring system is completed. This means that it would not be functional because some lanes would have to be closed.

The road was built under an agreement with China, and the main contractor is a Chinese company that was also one of the main contractors for the modernization of the railway from Novi Sad to Subotica, a project that also reconstructed the Novi Sad railway station building.