Bypass ate the pedestrian path: There will be no walks for the people of Užice until 2028

A year has passed since about 50.000 Wired left without most of the only one hiking trails in this city, if we exclude the one that leads by the city quay. The so-called Green Trail, almost eight kilometers long, was closed last summer for, as announced at the time, a month and a half.

More than a year later, bars still stand at the entrance to one of the tunnels of this track with the inscriptions: "Warning" and "Bmining in progress". The city government still does not know the exact answer to the question of when the path will be usable again, and opposition councilors warn that the works that closed the path could permanently devastate the river canyon Children, otherwise a protected natural area.

All this because of the ring road worth 30 million euros, which is being built around the city, and which the state and city authorities have been announcing for years. The deadline for the completion of the works is still unknown, so it is not officially known when the residents of Užice will be able to use the Green Track again, the track where the famous "Ćira" train began to travel exactly one hundred years ago.

Unofficially, it is a question of years, the city administration told "Vreme".

"I am extremely sorry, but the closure of the Green Path will probably take until the construction of the entire project, i.e. the entire ring road around Užice", says Predrag Gavović, assistant to the mayor of Užice.

The long-promised bypass

But let's go back a few steps.

It was March 2022 when the then Minister of Construction Tomislav Momirović signed a contract in Užice with representatives of the Chinese company "Power Construction Corporation of China Limited" on the design and construction of a ring road around that city, worth 29,8 million euros.

"The ring road will be a little less than five kilometers long, it will have four bridges, the largest of which is the bridge on Đetinja, which will be 250 meters long. It is extremely demanding from a technical point of view for construction, but we simply have to build this ring road," said Momirović at the time, promising that the works would be completed in two years.

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The deadline that the government originally talked about has been greatly exceeded. In the meantime, the relevant minister has been changed twice, and the work on the ring road, which has been waiting for decades, cannot be accelerated. Until last July, when the pedestrian path through the Djetinja canyon was closed due to the construction of the access road to the ring road.

"Given that it is about the safety of the users of the path that passes through the gorge, that is, the Djetinja canyon, and that our fellow citizens use that path intensively and in large numbers, the City of Užice and the contractor have decided that for the safety of the users of the path, we will close a part of that path, from tunnel number 14, near the Velika brana to tunnel 15, in a length of about 300, 400 meters. That path will be completely physically closed," said Predrag Gavović at the time.

So the hiking trail was closed last summer. With the construction of tunnel 14, about one and a half kilometers of the path from the direction of Užice remained available to the citizens. More than six kilometers, which lead through the Đetinje gorge to the Velika brana, Staparska spa and Lake Vrutca, have been completely impassable since then.

Extension of deadlines

After the expiration of all deadlines, the ban on movement has not been lifted, and the local self-government and the Tourist Organization of Užice occasionally announce that movement through the Djetinje gorge is dangerous and prohibited due to the occurrence of landslides and mining.

There is still no official announcement about the permanent ban on the use of the track. The assistant to the mayor of Užice told "Vreme" that the reason for this is the agreement that building permits for the ring road project will be issued successively, that is, partially for all elements of the future road and for the bridge over Djetinja.

"Last summer, the contractor asked us to close the Green Path for a month, a month and a half for safety reasons, because there was supposed to be blasting. However, they could not carry out the work according to such a project, they had to cut a huge rock, i.e. a hill. The redesign was carried out, so the deadline for the contractor to complete the work was extended for an additional three months. They were completed within that period. The Green Path was cleared because large rock masses fell on it due to the work. but the renovation of the existing one has not been completed. It turned out that many things will happen due to the construction of that bypass, so we agreed that every three months the City of Užice will give consent to the closure of the space between tunnels 14 and 15", Gavović told "Vreme".

The contractor currently has five building permits issued for the entire area.

"A revision of the main design of the bridge is being done. When the revision is received, the execution design will also be done, I expect that to happen within 2-3 months. Then the contractor will be able to start the construction of the bridge, which is quite demanding."

Gavović adds that the construction of the bridge "will last at least 30 months".

"We have not yet officially issued a statement that we are permanently closing the track until the project is completed, but as soon as the building permit and the project for the construction of the bridge are obtained, we will have to close the track permanently," the "Vremena" interlocutor points out.

According to his calculations, this would mean that, quite possibly, the Green Path for pedestrians and cyclists will open in August or September of 2028.

Alternative solutions offered

The assistant to the mayor of Užice points out that the city government tried to offer alternative solutions so that citizens could use the Green Path.

"We were trying to solve the problem between the two tunnels with the Ministry. Last year, I proposed to build a kind of concrete gallery, practically a tunnel between the two tunnels, which would fully protect the users of the track, while the works could proceed unhindered," says Gavović.

However, that "maybe could have passed at the time we agreed, which was the summer of last year."

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"Due to the events in Serbia in recent months, security concerns have, with reason, increased further. Now no one wants to agree that the gallery will be 100 percent safe for those who use it," says our interlocutor.

He also adds that the closure of the Green Path affected visits to tourist attractions in Užice.

"Two years ago we introduced an electric trolley that runs along that path, and four years ago the 'StaPark', a replica of a Neolithic settlement, was opened. It is now quite unvisited. We organize some tours through the Tourist Organization of Užice, but, unfortunately, it is not at the level it was before."

Accusations of devastation of nature

Two years ago, the gorge of the Djetinja River was protected as an area of exceptional characteristics. Hence the complaints from the Užice opposition and certain activist groups that blasting in that area threatens to permanently destroy the environment.

"One hundred years ago, Užice had a railway that connected us with Europe and the famous 'Ćira', which people used to travel. The railway has long been out of use, but behind Ćira, a beautiful path remains, the former route of the railway through tunnels, the canyon of the Djetinja River that runs past the beach for 8 km to the dam on Vrutci. The whole area is poor, one of the greatest tourist and recreational potentials of Užice," writes the statement of the Užice Committee of the Freedom and Justice Party from June this year.

This party states that today "the path is covered with rocks and stones from mining, tunnels are blocked, beaches and bays do not exist, the river is full of mud and waste, and after a hundred years, Užice is again 'cut off from Europe'".

"In such conditions, the progressive government does not even mention this jubilee because, if they had asked, no train would have ever reached Užice, because they are only capable of destroying everything they get their hands on, and they have been proving that since they came to power with every move they make," said the SSP.

The assistant to the mayor of Užice, however, claims that "the entire canyon is maintained as if the trail were in operation."

"Every year we remove dangerous rocks in order to enter the season as safely as possible. We did it this year as well. Every year we mow, clean branches, prune, and without that we don't start the season."

He adds that from the Institute for Nature Protection "following the objection of certain associations and the opposition, they were on the spot and stated that everything is fine."

"The only thing that bothers me, and I'm sure the city management and all citizens, is that part of the mined rock mass falls into the Velika brana. It is impossible for this not to happen, but the contractor is obliged to completely clean the Velika brana of all those materials that fell in there during the works," concludes Gavović.

What do citizens do?

Thus, for the next three years, the citizens of Užice will have at their disposal only the kilometer and a half of the road that ends at tunnel 14.

"Previously, I used to walk about 3-4 kilometers every other day, and sometimes I would also go to the Staparska spa, it was a really nice walk. It was ideal for cycling, since you could also go to the Staparska spa and then on to Vrutak. Now there is no point in even going by bike, because you would cross the path in five minutes," Jana, a student from Užice, told "Vreme".

Her walk has been ending at the 14th tunnel for a year now.

"That's why I go less often, because I'm sick of seeing the same scene non-stop. Otherwise, it was very relaxing and I would spend a good part of the day going for that walk. Now the route is simply too short, and almost unusable for cyclists," concludes our interlocutor.

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