On Boris Trajkovski Boulevard there are diggers again. After 30 years of interruptions, postponed investment, unresolved property-rights questions and managerial incompetence - the project finally enters its final phase. That means one part of Skopje, the part connecting Dračevo, Zelenikovo and Studeničani to the centre, will likely have a four-lane road by the end of 2026.

The number that ties all the arguments together is 100,000 residents. That's how many people depend on this boulevard every day to get to work, to schools, to medical facilities. Until now, „boulevard" has been rhetorical - they've been living on a two-lane road with potholes, flooded trenches and infrastructure that hasn't been renewed since the 1990s. That's sabotage of human time in the name of postponed political deals.

Mayor Orce Đorđievski spoke openly: the boulevard had been „blocked, forgotten and turned into real suffering for thousands of citizens". That's the rhetoric of a man who becomes mayor and discovers that his predecessors, especially Koce Trajanovski, started a project that was left unfinished. It's a story about political legacies that get tossed back and forth without anyone closing them.

The ongoing finishing works cover about 1 kilometre, with 88% of the route already excavated. The remaining technical obstacles should be cleared in the next 10 days. The investment for this phase is around 2 million euros. Once finished, there will be four traffic lanes, pedestrian and cycling paths, and a new storm-water drainage system - in other words, infrastructure that will prevent flooding during heavier rain. This isn't luxury, this is a basic investment that should have been made two decades ago.

The question for readers is - how many years does an infrastructure solution in Skopje have to wait before it sees real progress? This boulevard - 30 years. The Vodno cable car - 60 years without a serious service. Sewerage in peripheral municipalities - often never. That's not the city's irony, that's its reputation. And every new administration promises it's „the turning point", and every next one inherits the same half-played arsenal. Dračevo will now have a boulevard. The question is which other piece of Skopje waits another 30 years.