For the first time since it was built at all, Street "101" in Volkovo is getting a full reconstruction. The mayor of Skopje, Orce Gjorgjievski, together with an MP from the ruling party, marked the start of works on one of the most important roads in this part of the city - a direct link to the bypass used daily by a large number of residents.

Behind the protocol photo op marking the start sits a real problem that the residents of Volkovo have endured for years. When a street is a direct link to the bypass and has never been reconstructed since it was built, it means that every day hundreds of vehicles pass over a roadway that has long outlived its lifespan. The reconstruction, if it is finished properly, is not cosmetics - it is infrastructure that affects daily life.

Still, experience teaches us to be wary of "marking the start". Here, the gap between the start of works and their finish can be a wide one, and streets sometimes stay dug up for months while the politics is mirrored in the pace of the building. The residents of Volkovo are not after photographs - they are after a street you can drive on.

So the real test for this project will not be today's marking, but the day the reconstruction is finished - on time, on budget and without the usual excuses. Until then, it is good that the works are at least starting where they should have long ago. The only question is how long they will take.