Towards the end of August, the City of Skopje and several large municipalities will receive new municipal trucks, tankers and street sweepers, while the tender for electric buses is in its final phase, tied up in legal and appeal proceedings. That was announced by Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski from the construction site at Momin Potok.

The tender procedure for the municipal equipment has been finalised, and the launch will be organised together with the Ministry of Transport. For the electric buses, the government explains, the final legal procedures and the appeal proceedings are running in parallel.

That word „parallel” is worth pausing on. An appeal in a public procurement process in Macedonia is not a formality - it can drag on for months and send the tender back to square one. An announcement about electric buses still under appeal is not a purchase. It is an intention.

Momin Potok: 75 percent and one more New Year

On the Momin Potok overpass, mayor Orce Gjorgjievski said 75 percent of construction work has been completed and that, as promised, this section will be fully finished by New Year. Expropriations are one hundred percent resolved and residents have been paid by the City of Skopje. The project also includes two kilometres of retaining walls, pedestrian and cycling paths, and the government has provided 60 million denars.

The project began in July 2021 and was presented as one of the largest infrastructure investments in Skopje. Five years on, it stands at 75 percent. That is not a disaster for a project of this size, but neither is it a pace worth calling a press conference over - which is exactly why every new „by New Year” is heard with reservation.

Five bridges are currently under way in Skopje. By the end of the year, the widening of the Serava bridge and the bridge on Ljubljanska street are due to be completed. Work on Boris Trajkovski boulevard is intensive, and in August construction starts on a bridge connecting Gazi Baba and Aerodrom.

The list is long and serious. The test is simple: at the end of August we will see how many trucks, tankers and sweepers actually arrived in Skopje, and at New Year we will see whether Momin Potok has been crossed off or is still a construction site measured in percentages.