The column in New Philadelphia that injured 14-year-old should have been replaced 13 years ago.

– necklines throughout Athens and Piraeus, in a corroded network of poles that measures more than half a century make up the situation that prevails in one of the most environmentally friendly means of transport, the . On the occasion of the near tragedy in New Philadelphia with the column, which almost cost life to a 14-year-old student, the newsit.gr reveals the chaotic landscape behind the trolley pole network, which literally rots, creating death traps throughout the basin. The shocking evidence is that since 2011 the need for replacement of the poles had been identified, but the project to date, 13 years later, has not been completed. The chronicle of a project that was not completed was July 2011, when OSY S.A. decide to replace the aging trolley network by announcing a competition for the project’s contractor. A commission was set up to execute the competition, which was appointed for the 26th of the same month. The project is co-financed by the Public Investment Programme and its budget is 1,590.493,83€. In October 2011 the competition is again announced for 29.11.2011 and the corresponding FEK is published in the Government Gazette. However, it does not appear to be a contractor, the country passes into the throes of the economic crisis and the work remains on paper for 2 years. Then, for the third time, a public open tender is announced, for 19.02.2013. The budget of the project remains at 1,590.493.83€, and the competent committee of the IACC for the sealing of tenders is also set up. However, the fate of the Arta Bridge, for a project directly linked to the security of citizens and passengers, is inevitable. The competition once again is barren, as no offer was filed, and is announced for the fourth time, on 12.03.2013. According to what is derived from the documents posted for this project, a technical company emerged as contractor, which began its execution in part. In August 2014, i.e. a year and a half after the competition, the first work on parts of the project has been completed and an OSY committee is set up to receive them. The work of replacing the poles does not… but wants to be completed. As is apparent from the decisions of OCS, until February 2015 there are delays in the completion of the project and the company gives an extension to its completion date, until 31 October 2015. The replacement of the poles is still not complete. Other obstacles arise in the cloudy and idolatrous landscape of public works. A year and a half after the assumed date of full completion of the project, in February 2017, the OCSY takes a decision to take only the “functional part”. In fact, as stated in the company’s decision, the ‘part of the work’ has been completed. That is, 6 years from the first time that the OCS started the competition process (2011) and all that has happened is that a part of the project has been completed. The last stage of the show of a competition that was never completed was in July 2017, when OSY decides to repay the contractor company for the part of the pole network it replaced. At the same time, it is decided to adjust the project. It is worth noting that the area of New Philadelphia, where – as everything shows – the columns were never replaced. In the courts, why was the work never completed? Like many public works, this was unfortunate. Reason, the fact that the OCS with the project’s contractor were taken to court. According to newssit.gr’s information from the contractor’s environment, while the project started properly, OSY stopped informing manufacturers about the next sections of the network, in which the work would continue. This resulted in huge delays, after the contractor had committed workers and equipment, remaining idle. The same information states that the case was brought to court, with the contractor denouncing the contract and leaving the project incomplete. What happened to the rest of the money budgeted? Were they detained or lost? Why have the procedures for the completion of the project not been initiated since 2017? Why wasn’t a contest reopened? On the OSH side, there is still no official response regarding the course of such a pivotal project, which was never completed. As announced yesterday by the company, after the shocking incident with a 14-year-old victim: “by order of the Administration a Technical Committee has already been set up to investigate the incident immediately.”