Panic hit the administrators in charge of traffic in Zagreb last week, when news of serious problems with Zagreb interchange surfaced.
Built in 1974, one of major Zagreb road interchanges where Slavonska avenija and Marina Držića Street meet, one of the key points of entry to the centre of the city from the eastern direction caused a bit of a panic last week. What happened is that a worried citizen, admittedly an absolute lay-person, reported that the interchange (“petlja”, as the citizens of Zagreb call it) was basically falling apart. He notified those in charge that there was a massive hole in one of the pillars supporting one of the ramps, and as a first reaction that ramp was closed off for freight vehicles, before a detailed investigation of the situation could be performed.
And then a commission, made up of experts from several offices in the City administration as well as the Ministry of the sea, transport and infrastructure and some authorized experts investigated. They concluded that there are no dangers to the statics of the interchange, no matter how heavy the vehicles going on it are. They lifted all of the restrictions for the traffic on the interchange ramp,
While the experts admit that the damage on the ramp is visible to the naked eye, they claim that it is possible for a damage to appear scary, but actually be completely safe and have no influence on the statics of the ramp. The experts agree that the protective layer of concrete is significantly deteriorated, and that some type of work on the problem should take place soon, but that it is just an appearance problem, that has nothing with the function of a very busy section of road.
