Residents in Veles complain of daily tremors from underground parking construction; contractor: works to finish in about ten days

Residents of Veles who live beside the construction site of a new underground multi-storey car park say they have been feeling repeated tremors for about a month, sometimes as many as ten small shakes a day. Those affected include people living on 8 September Street and Goce Delchev Street, and employees at the local Basic Court, the public prosecutor’s office and the Ombudsman’s office.

“We live under stress, it is not at all pleasant to live with earthquakes for a month, which have become our everyday life. We know it is from the construction of the underground garage, but is there a way for this not to happen so long and so often,” residents from the neighbourhood said.

The contractor responsible for the works says the activity causing the vibrations is part of required groundwork and that the noisy phase will be completed soon.

“Work is being carried out to prepare the tamping base on which the founding, the underpinning of the multi-storey garage will be carried out. The execution methodology requires that this is necessary in order to have a good and quality execution. Tamping must be well done with vibrations. At the moment, about 70 percent of those necessary works, the installation of tamping material, have been completed. The remaining part will be finished in no more than a week and a half,” said Filip Sovinovski of Stenton Gradba.

Project details and timeline

The underground car park covers 1,508 square metres, has three levels and sits 15 metres below ground. It will provide parking for 100 vehicles. The total construction cost is 221 million denars, of which 132 million are for the underground garage and 91 million for the square; the funds come from the Government of North Macedonia and are financed by a Hungarian loan.

Mayor Marko Kolev said the site faced several complications during work: a World War II bomb was discovered, the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Defence carried out checks for other unexploded ordnance, and the ground composition was inconsistent in places. Heavy urban traffic complicated the entry and exit of large trucks, and groundwater from the Vardar required protective measures. “The recent period was very hard. They found a bomb from the Second World War. Then MVR and the Ministry of Defence conducted examinations to see if there were other remaining explosive devices on this area. There was soil with an unsynchronized composition, somewhere sand, elsewhere hard soil. The central urban area with intensive traffic made construction more difficult regarding the entry and exit of heavy trucks from the site. Protection against groundwater from the Vardar was being made. The important thing is that the heavier works are behind us. I hope that in mid-2027 the underground multi-storey garage and the square will be completed and put into operation,” Kolev said.

Photo: SDK.MK)