Construction of the 442-meter new walkway in the Neptun area has been put on hold. Croatian Waters has revealed unexpected obstacles at the site, and work cannot proceed until the Drava River rises.
Work on the new 442-meter section of Osijek's promenade, one of the longest riverside city walks in Europe, has been halted almost as soon as it began, due to an obstacle no one knew about when the contract was signed. In the riverbed near Neptun, contractors have come across sunken ships.
Croatian Waters, the institution managing the entire project, confirmed that the site is currently quiet, although the preparatory phase included the construction of a new access road from the Pampas stadium, precisely to avoid heavy machinery passing through narrow city streets.
"When the contract was signed, it was not known that there were sunken ships in that area," Croatian Waters told SiB. They reminded that they had already participated in an operation to remove dozens of old vessels from the former company Vodogradnja d.d., which were anchored within the project scope, but the new problem is posed by those ships that remained hidden beneath the surface.
"The vessels that were not visible are an obstacle to starting the foundation works," they emphasized. To resolve the issue, a negotiation process was conducted with the contractor, and an addendum to the existing contract was signed, covering the removal of the sunken ships, an unplanned cost that has now become an integral part of the project.
However, even with the readiness to remove the obstacle, nature has imposed a new pause. "Currently, due to the extremely low water level, it is not possible to access the vessels for removal, so we are waiting for the water level to rise," Croatian Waters concluded in their response. The river is simply too shallow for such an undertaking.
According to the original timeline, work was supposed to begin at the boat ramp, and besides the visible parts of the bank reinforcement, it also includes complex works on stabilizing the riverbed along the shore, by constructing fascine mattresses used for foundations in the riverbed. All of this now awaits the Drava to swell.
The project to extend the promenade has sparked divided reactions from citizens from the very beginning. Just before the official start of works, a citizens' initiative organized a peaceful gathering in the Pampas area, signaling that part of the public does not support the project in its planned form, and now the sunken ships have added another layer of uncertainty to the whole story.
