In Mykolaiv, transport collapse due to the breakdown of the Varvarivskyi bridge and urgent emergency repairs

This morning, December 6, in Mykolaiv, there were traffic jams in the Varvarivskyi Bridge area and along Heroiv Ukrainy Avenue. The transport collapse occurred due to the breakdown of a part of the Varvarivskyi bridge and its emergency removal.

Currently, traffic is being regulated by patrol officers, the spokesman of Mykolaiv patrol police, Vitalii Dushko, said in a comment to NikVesti.

— One situation arose in the morning. There is a metal plate at the junction of the branching and stationary parts of the Varvarivskyi bridge. One of these slabs was torn off for unknown reasons. We have informed the relevant service in charge of this area and they are currently working on fixing the problem, he said.

At the moment, the traffic on the Varvarivskyi bridge is partially moving, the patrol police said. According to Vitalii Dushko, for the same reason there were traffic jams along Heroiv Ukrainy Avenue.

— Because there is generally truck traffic there. They go through the Inhulskyi bridge and then go to the Varvarivskyi bridge, he clarified.

We remind you that during the meeting on October 13, the Government made a decision to transfer the Ingulsky and Yuzhnobuzskyi (Varvarivskyi) bridges in Mykolaiv to state ownership. After that, the Deputy Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine, Mustafa Nayem, told about the stage of the Mykolaiv bypass bridge project and the plans for the repair of the Varvarivskyi and Inhulskyi bridges.

As you know, Varvarivskyi Bridge in Mykolaiv is part of the M-14 highway of international importance «Odesa — Melitopol — Novoazovsk» and is currently in a state of emergency. In February 2020, the process of transferring the bridge from the municipal ownership of the city to the balance sheet of Ukravtodor began, but it has not yet been completed. This is due to the fact that the Ministry of Finance is asking Mykolaiv to provide the cost of reconstruction of the building in order to accept Varvarivsky Bridge as state property. For this, the city needs to conduct an examination and order design and estimate documentation for the repair of the bridge, the total cost of which is about 20 million hryvnias. The mayor of Mykolaiv, Oleksandr Sienkevych, said that there are no funds for this in the city budget.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is also aware of the need to repair the Varvarivskyi bridge. In July 2019, the head of state announced that solving the problem of the Varvarivskyi bridge is the governor's first priority. Four months later, during a briefing in Ochakiv, Volodymyr Zelenskyy voiced this issue again. Then he forced the acting governor of the Mykolaiv Oblast Oleksandr Stadnyk to promise to repair the Varvarivskyi bridge by the end of 2020.

The issue of the transfer of the Varvarivskyi bridge was also addressed by the deputy of the Mykolaiv City Council, Tetiana Dombrovska. In July 2021, she initiated a meeting with the participation of the Minister of Infrastructure Oleksandr Kubrakov, representatives of the Ministry of Finance, «Ukravtodor» and the city council, in order to understand the issue of the transfer of the bridge. However, this also did not give results, because after two months the issue was not resolved. At the same time, «Ukravtodor» reported that the question of allocating money for the repair of the Varvarivskyi bridge will be considered only after it is transferred to state ownership.