Storm Daniel repairs to cost €600 mln
Twenty days after Storm Daniel flooded the region of Thessaly, in central Greece, and the regional unit of Fthiotida, immediately to its south, causing extensive damage, the Transport and Infrastructure Ministry announced that damage to infrastructure alone would cost €600 million to repair or replace.
According to the ministry, 70.2 kilometers of roads, 79 bridges and 130 other works, several of them dams and irrigation works, were damaged; the flood washed away railway tracks in 16 places and 79 schools were flooded.
State officials visited 473 locations and inspected 981 kilometers of the road network, Transport and Infrastructure Minister Christos Staikouras, a lawmaker from the Fthiotida multi-seat constituency, told his cabinet colleagues Wednesday.
The ministry inspectors estimated that 40.7% of the affected infrastructure was severely or totally damaged. Among the 79 affected bridges, 24 will have to be completely rebuilt.
The cabinet decided that repair and reconstruction of roads and bridges will be undertaken by the Infrastructure Ministry and not the affected regions (Thessaly and Central Greece). The ministry will also repair the damaged schools, instead of the municipalities.
Legislation has been voted to fast-track infrastructure repairs in regions where an emergency has been declared. There will be no open bids for the repairs, but, for each project, the ministry will call three companies with proven experience to submit bids. The winning bidders will undertake the project studies, instead of state agencies. Also, there will be no environmental impact assessment of the projects.
A visit to flood-stricken Thessaly by EU Commissioner for Agriculture Janusz Wojciechowski, initially scheduled for Wednesday, was postponed until October 5 as a new wave of wet weather is hitting the same region, Greece’s Agricultural Development and Food Minister Lefteris Avgenakis announced.
Wojciechowski was expected to fly by helicopter over the affected areas.
