Bucharest is a city where something is always broken, where there are debts for decades, and people are tired of promises and waiting. So it’s quite hard to see the good things that are happening in the midst of so many flaws. However, they do happen – however, much less than we would like. We’ve started a list of ten good things that happened in 2023 in Bucharest, but we invite you to continue it in the comments. What do you think went well in Bucharest in 2023?

1. The main works on changing the heating network have started

In Bucharest, only about 15% of the main heating networks have been modernized, the pipes are 30-50 years old – they are cracked or so rusty that when you press your finger on them, they literally break. Every week, hundreds of neighborhoods remain without hot water and heat.

Speaking clearly in numbers, of the 851.84 km of pipes in the primary transport network of hot water, more than 65% are over 25 years old, 10% are between 20 and 25 years old, 11% are between 10 and 20 years old and only about 14% are less than 10 years old. Over the past 3 years, about 100 km of the network have been replaced.

Good news: finally this year, in June, the capital city hall work on the replacement of 210 km of main heating networks has begun, a project worth about 260 million euros, of which 200 are non-refundable European funds, which has a final completion date of the end of 2024. When this project is completed, we will be almost 40% with the network restored and the situation will clearly improve. Read more about replacing heating networks here.

Also in 2023, two important works were carried out so that Bucharest residents in Sectors 2 and 3 could be provided with CET Progresu and CET Sud, and Bucharest residents in Sector 1 could also be provided with CET Grozăvesti.

2. The parking revolution lasted

By the end of this year, the capital city hall will reach the threshold 50,000 parking spaces in the center of Bucharestcompared to the roughly 10,000 that existed until August 2022, when the “parking revolution” began, according to data recently provided by Deputy Mayor Stelian Buyduveanu to HotNews.ro.

Dozens at the same time sidewalks are cleared of cars. There are practically no new places, because people parked either on the sidewalk or on the road, but the municipality did not collect anything, and pedestrians had nowhere to walk. Thanks to this project, public access and paid parking are in order.

Carol Boulevard before and after

Nowhere in civilized Europe do people park on the sidewalks and control every square meter of common use. Free parking is actually very expensive for the city, the pollution costs are huge. Read more about the parking revolution in Bucharest here.

3. New electric trams and buses have arrived

They arrived in Bucharest in 2023 70 new Imperio trams and 100 BMC electric buses – 20 have already been put into circulation.

By spring, all 100 new electric trams and buses will be put into circulation. The leap is huge for Bucharest, considering that almost all the trams used in the city were produced during the communist period and are still only cosmetic, but they have long exceeded their useful life, they did not have air conditioning, and when your world was more honey, they stopped in the middle of the road

The old Mercedes buses and trolleybuses currently in use are those bought by former mayor Adrian Videanu in 2005-2007. In the period 2018-2020, during the mandate of Gabriela Firea, the city hall purchased 500 new Otokar buses and 130 Mercedes hybrids. More details here.

In 2024, there will be Bucharest 100 new trolleybuses Solaris trademark. The first 15 will arrive in January, Mayor Nikushor Dan announced.

4. The Tudor Arghezi metro station is put into operation

The Tudor Arghezi metro station on the M 2 Pipera-Berceni highway was opened on November 15, the work was carried out by the City Hall of Sector 4 in partnership with Metrorex.

There is a shuttle system for now, so if you are coming from the university, get off at Berceni station and take a train from another platform, one more station, to Tudor Arghezi station. Even with a transfer, the train from the University to Tudor Arghezi station takes about 25-30 minutes. By car during rush hour, you do twice as much.

Between Berceni station and Tudor Arghezi, the metro ride takes about two minutes. When you get out of the metro, there are only a few logistics places on the left and right, so there is nothing for you to do there, there are no shops, no high-rise buildings, no park, or anything else. Residential neighborhoods are likely to be built in the near future, the station as a magnet for real estate investment, but for now this is a field.

However, the station is useful, especially since the city hall has arranged a parking lot near it park&ride 350 places for those coming from Vidra, Berceni to Bucharest for work or study. Even those without a car can easily get here because there are buses between Vidra-Berčeni and the metro station that stop in front of the station every 20 minutes. the subway instead of a private car.

The Tudor Arghezi metro station cost 50 million euros (non-refundable).

The City Hall of Sector 4 plans to extend the metro to Bercheny commune in partnership with the district council. Then work will have even more meaning.

5. The City Hall of the 2nd sector started the systematization of the streets in the City Center

Town hall of sector 2 a about 20 streets of the central part have been modernized. They stood abandoned for decades, the sidewalks were occupied by cars, because of the abandoned cars it was impossible to drive in both directions at the same time, the territory looked uncivilized. Now it looks decent.

6. Two new parks appeared in the city

In June, the first section of the street was opened in the Town Hall of Sector 6 Linear park, a 45,000 m2 green space between Cora Lujerului and Cotroceni station. Previously, there was an abandoned railway track here. The development lasted 1 year and cost 13.5 million lei.

In July, work also started on the second phase, up to the rear of the AFI Cotroceni shopping centre. The town hall will arrange another park with an area of ​​2.5 hectares. The City Hall of Sector 6 announced that the works will be ready in the spring of 2024. The cost of the investment is 4,157,980 lei without VAT.

From the summer of 2024, work will begin on phase 3, the largest, with an area of ​​80,000 square meters. m (it stretches between Valea Cascadelor and Lujerului). Liniei Park will have a total length of 4.2 km and will stretch along the former railway line that used to pass by APACA and the entire Military Quarter. It will connect Valea Cascadelor with the Doina Cornea area, where AFI Cotroceni is also located.

Park Tudor Arghezi, equipped with the City Hall of Sector 4 at the building Metalurgiei, was opened in September, being the newest park in Bucharest. The 4-hectare green area was built from scratch, in an area where hundreds of new apartment buildings were built in the field, without green areas, playgrounds, sidewalks and other necessary facilities.

The city hall plans to expropriate more land in the next period to double the area of ​​the park, Mayor Daniel Beluce said.

Work on the development of Tudor Arghezi Park began in February 2022 and had a completion period of 18 months. In total, the investment is about 40 million lei, excluding the artesian hectare, it costs 23 million lei.

7. Work was completed on 4 road crossings

In April, the City Hall of Sector 3 completed work on the overpass at the intersection of the boulevards. Theodore Palladius with Nikolae Teklu street, at the exit to the Soarelui freeway. The works were completed in record time – 5 months, by one of the companies of the city hall of sector 3, Algorithm Residential S3, and cost about 10 million euros.

In June, works on the City Hall of Sector 3 were completed drive from the entrance to the Soareluy freeway.The construction of the passage lasted a year and two months and cost 36 million lei. Work began in April 2022.

In September, the capital’s mayor’s office completed work on Excerpt from Ms. Gika. The municipality completed work on the overpass from Doamna Ghica three years late. The construction site was opened in September 2018, with an initial completion date of May 2020. Investments amount to 110,034,377.95 lei without VAT, part of the funds were provided by the City Hall of Sector 2.

Also, in September, the City Hall of Sector 3 completed the expansion of Iuliu Gatsieganu Street from one lane to two in one direction in a record short time – two months. Traffic was opened, but at that time there were still works on sidewalks and landscaping.

In December, the works were completed in the City Hall of the 4th sector at the address of the street passage of a united Europe, located at the intersection of Turnu Magurele Street and Bldg. metallurgy. The construction site opened in February 2022 and was scheduled to close in June 2023. The cost of the investment was 85,801,655.84 lei including VAT.

8. Retroceded 4 ha in Plumbuita Park will be restored

In October, the local council of Sector 2 decided that the City Hall of Sector 2 should acquire 4 hectares of land are allocated to Plumbuita Parkin 2015. It is about the area between Plumbuita Monastery and the lake, which has been abandoned for more than 10 years.

The total value of the agreement is 4,325,000 euros. Owners: Teodora Berbulescu, Koroi Rodika-Eugenia and Khanganu Anka-Maria. The City Hall is in the final stage of initialing the agreement with the owners.

9. Mageru Boulevard finally looks decent

After being neglected for years, with destroyed green spaces, broken sidewalks and inscriptions on benches, this summer the city hall of the capital organized the green spaces, repaired the broken sidewalks, the area does not look exceptional, but at least decent. It was a pity that this boulevard in the center of the city remained in a neglected state.

10. The Bucharest Court suspended the Sector 2 PUZ

In June, the Bucharest court suspended and annulled the decision PUZ of sector 2, approved by the Firea administration and which allowed dozens of hectares of green areas to be concreted. A lawsuit has been filed with the UED, the decision can be appealed.

In March, another process regarding the cancellation of the “Sector 2” PUZ, initiated by the “Ecopolis” Association, was lost in the first instance, also in the Bucharest court. The appeal is currently being considered.

However, unfortunately, between the two controversies, the Sector 2 City Hall issued several permits for the Sector 2 PUZ, which have now been suspended and revoked.

However, in September, the City Hall of the 2nd sector suspended the permit for real estate objects that had a town planning certificate for the 2nd sector PUZ and did not receive a construction permit. We are talking about more than 500 real estate objects for which a town planning certificate was requested in March-June 2023.