Since the beginning of the year, the escalators in the University Passage have hardly worked. Mayor Nikushor Dan announced in July that they would be replaced and that a procurement process had begun. The tender for the purchase of new stairs has not yet been completed, and the old stairs have not been repaired before repair.

The crossing from the University is used by thousands of people every day, as it is the main access to the subway station, and it is difficult for people with reduced mobility to pass through this area due to the lack of escalators.

As Marian Barhau, director of the street administration of the capital city hall, informed Hotnews.ro, the tender for the purchase of new escalators will be completed next week, 5 offers will be submitted, and the technical analysis has been completed. .

“Then there is an appeals period, we have to see what happens if there are no appeals, we can sign the contract and in about 6 months we will have the new escalators,” Bargau explained.

When asked why they are not repairing at least one pair of escalators until the purchase of new ones is completed, Bargau says that they were repaired two months ago, but since they are internal stairs, there are problems when it rains and they break.

“I’m waiting next week for maintenance to do an assessment and tell us what we can fix so we at least have a functional one until the new ones arrive. Unfortunately, they are internal and will not last, although I constantly fixed them. Repairs are very expensive, and we can’t even give a lot of money right now to repair them all, if they can be repaired, considering that in a few months we will replace them,” explained Barhau.

On July 1, the city hall through the street administration announced a tender for the purchase of new escalators. The estimated value of the contract is 3,512,605 lei, and the deadline for submission of proposals was August 3.

The subject of the contract is the purchase of 8 units of escalators, including dismantling and installation of equipment, distributed as follows: entrance to the National Theater – 2 pieces; access to Colțea hospital – two pieces; Access to the university – two pieces; access to the university museum – two pieces. The term of the contract: 12 months,” the electronic public procurement system says.

University escalators were installed in 2008, when the city hall modernized the entire underground pedestrian crossing. The repair work of the passage cost 18,866,149 lei, and 249,058 lei were paid for the stairs, 71 lei without VAT, according to data reported at the time by the capital city hall. They were under warranty for four years until 2012, but since then they keep breaking. Sometimes they did not work for whole months because the municipality no longer had maintenance contracts. Other times, as soon as they were repaired, they broke again.