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Drivers Are Extending Zagreb Roadworks by Driving Onto 170°C Asphalt
🇭🇷 Croatia /Energy & Infrastructure

Drivers Are Extending Zagreb Roadworks by Driving Onto 170°C Asphalt

From Večernji List · () Croatian

Translated from Croatian and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources Context piece
  • Zagreb official Andro Pavuna said drivers entering construction zones, including freshly laid asphalt, force contractors to stop, repair damage and repeat work.
  • He said the city imposes contractual penalties when contractors cause delays, but argued that the current delay on Vukovarska Street is not the contractor’s fault.
  • Pavuna also cited unforeseen conditions beneath old infrastructure and complications involving multiple contractors as causes of extended deadlines.

Drivers who ignore temporary traffic controls are helping prolong some of Zagreb’s roadworks, city official Andro Pavuna says. Some motorists have driven directly onto newly laid asphalt, forcing workers to stop, repair the damage and repeat completed work.

Pavuna said dozens of cars have at times crossed asphalt heated to 170 degrees Celsius during road surfacing. Workers then cannot continue, while marking the road and other tasks also have to be delayed. “You have asphalt paving, road marking and hot asphalt at 170 degrees, and dozens of cars keep coming,” he said. “You cannot work. Then the works drag on, you have to patch things and repeat an operation, and then we ask why it takes so long.”

He made the comments while answering a question about penalties for contractors whose projects run late, including work on Vukovarska Street. Pavuna said Zagreb normally charges contractual penalties when contractors are responsible for missed deadlines, but maintained that the contractor is not to blame for the current delay on Vukovarska.

You have asphalt paving, road marking and hot asphalt at 170 degrees, and dozens of cars keep coming. You cannot work. Then the works drag on, you have to patch things and repeat an operation, and then we ask why it takes so long.

— Andro PavunaHe described how motorists entering active roadworks disrupt asphalt paving and extend construction.

He also pointed to problems that emerge when crews reopen old infrastructure. The condition underground may differ from the project plans, with pipes in another location or additional work required. If construction supervision approves those changes, the city accepts them, he said. Deadlines are estimated by designers according to the planned work rather than set arbitrarily by the city.

Tram-track construction creates another difficulty because trams must continue passing through the work zone, preventing the use of a permanent physical barrier. Some drivers follow immediately behind trams through excavated sections, despite workers’ warnings. “People still drive 20 or 30 centimetres behind the tram,” Pavuna said. “There is someone waving immediately, but they simply ignore them.”

People still drive 20 or 30 centimetres behind the tram. There is someone waving immediately, but they simply ignore them.

— Andro PavunaHe described drivers following trams through tram-track construction zones despite warnings.
About this summary

Originally published by Večernji List in Croatian. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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