Enab Baladi – Mohammad Deeb Bazt
The streets of Aleppo, in northern Syria, particularly in its eastern neighborhoods, are experiencing a decline in their road infrastructure. Service councils rely primarily on temporary maintenance work that recurs with rainfall or increased traffic pressure, which affects the sustainability of these solutions.
Taxi drivers and motorcyclists are forced to change their routes daily in the Salah al-Din neighborhood to avoid the widespread potholes in al-Hashkal Street.
Motaz, a taxi driver, told Enab Baladi that he chooses a new route every day, as potholes complicate his work, and his car breaks down every week.
The situation is not much different in the neighborhoods of al-Sukari, al-Firdaws, and al-Masharqa, where some side streets have become impassable. Residents from these neighborhoods confirmed that the work often only involves “seasonal patching,” as they describe it, of some main streets without addressing the root causes of the infrastructure damage caused by war and negligence, in addition to the repeated excavations carried out by service companies for water and electricity.
The deterioration of the roads not only affects traffic flow but also imposes additional financial burdens on residents. Abu Alaa, a resident of al-Masharqa, stated that he had to spend part of his savings to repair his car after it collided with a pothole.
According to residents interviewed by Enab Baladi, the problem is not limited to vehicles; it also affects pedestrians, especially the elderly and persons with disabilities. The absence of walkable sidewalks, broken lighting, and the abundance of potholes on the streets all make daily mobility a challenging task, especially in the winter season.
Awaiting funding
In response, Mustafa Kronfol, the head of service projects in Aleppo governorate, explained that maintenance teams are currently working on repairing some roads according to the available resources, noting that priority is given to the eastern neighborhoods due to the significant destruction of their infrastructure, both in terms of roads and services.
He pointed out that asphalting work is currently being carried out in collaboration with civil society organizations, while the city council awaits the approval of the proposed budget after next June to begin its comprehensive plans for asphalting the damaged roads across various sectors, as reports assessing needs and necessary plans for this work have been submitted.
Regarding the state of asphalt mixing plants, Kronfol revealed that the two plants belonging to the city council are destroyed and completely out of service, forcing them to purchase asphalt from private mixing plants at high and uncontrollable costs.
He stated that the mixing plants have been subjected to theft and vandalism since 2013, and today they lack any necessary equipment. The estimated cost to rehabilitate each one and bring it back into service is around $500,000.
He noted that recent asphalting work included the Bab al-Nayrab neighborhood, where a field visit was conducted alongside the head of the city council to inspect the quality of the asphalt and the technical specifications of the materials used, confirming that the work is still ongoing, with accompanying sewage projects being implemented.
He clarified that the asphalt quality control process includes adherence to gradation (the distribution of material sizes in the asphalt mix) and layer thickness, according to the approved technical specifications.
Kronfol also pointed out that quality projects, such as primary road maintenance connecting different neighborhoods of Aleppo or connecting the city with its rural areas, have undergone studies prepared by the Technical Services Directorate and have been submitted to the Ministry of Local Administration.
Among the prioritized near-term maintenance roads are those connecting Aleppo to al-Atarib, Azaz, and Darat Izzah in the northern and western rural areas, among others that are visibly damaged.
On another note, the head of service projects explained that implementing any of these projects is linked to securing the necessary funding, which is the main challenge hindering asphalting and maintenance efforts in the governorate.
He confirmed that the work plans are based on two approaches: the first relies on support from organizations, associations, and economic activities, such as traders or local donations, while the second requires government funding to ensure the sustainability of the projects.
Quality maintenance challenges
In response to criticisms regarding the quality of maintenance work and its rapid failure, Kronfol clarified that the issue is linked to the nature of unorganized areas, especially in the eastern neighborhoods.
Service entities are forced to excavate roads again after completing asphalting due to malfunctions in sewage or water networks, leading to asphalt damage, according to Kronfol.
He also mentioned that some of these areas suffer from insufficient infrastructure networks, making road quality continuously vulnerable to deterioration.
He reported that work is underway to create an “excavation room,” which is a coordinating room that includes all stakeholders in infrastructure, aimed at ensuring that all excavation and maintenance work is completed before asphalting to avoid future excavations.
He emphasized that the city council now requires a commitment or guarantee from any entity that conducts excavation work on the roads to restore the conditions to how they were even in emergency cases, preserving road quality and safety.
War-damaged
The streets of Aleppo, especially the eastern ones, suffered significant damage due to military operations and campaigns carried out by the previous Syrian regime during the years of war that erupted within the city neighborhoods in August 2012.
The destruction broadly impacted the infrastructure, including sewage, water, and electricity networks, in addition to roads that were directly affected.
Air and artillery bombardments targeted the main streets connecting the eastern and western neighborhoods, resulting in a severance of these areas for years, amid the establishment of earth barriers and the presence of checkpoints and military obstacles that greatly affected the movement of residents and transportation between neighborhoods.
These areas also witnessed repeated clashes that impacted road conditions and created new challenges in rehabilitating the damaged infrastructure.
“Seasonal patching”… Aleppo’s roads await asphalting after budget approval Enab Baladi.
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