Vucic Threatens Fines for Old Railway Bridge Contractors

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic announced on August 9, at the construction site of the Old Railway Bridge over the Sava River in Belgrade, that the state will introduce financial penalties for contractors who miss deadlines, and that none of them will get new state contracts until they finish the work they have already started. The site visit, part of the reconstruction and repurposing of the bridge under the Belgrade Waterfront project, turned into public criticism of everyone working on the site, and then of members of his own government.

Vucic told reporters he was not satisfied with the pace of the work and that inspections will now be carried out every day.

“I’m terribly angry, at myself above all, that we haven’t managed to speed all this up. Now there will be no easy way out, we’ll have to check on it every day, introduce financial penalties, and not give anyone any other job, for anything, until they finish this and speed everything up,” the president said.

Work on the bridge is due to be finished by December 1 at the latest, with the full reconstruction completed by April of next year. Those are two deadlines the president set himself on site, and both fall in a period when other projects tied to the same exhibition are also being wrapped up.

Who is responsible for the delay

Asked about accountability, Vucic described a circle in which blame gets passed from designer to contractor and back, one that also takes in subcontractors and investors. He used the phrase “vicious circle” for that mechanism.

“I’m not satisfied with the pace of the work. Contractors, designers, subcontractors and investors keep shifting responsibility onto one another. I’m angry, it’s going to be painful, we’ll be chasing deadlines, we’ll have to introduce financial penalties. Sometimes you have to threaten people. I’m the one at fault, I thought everyone had the same dreams as me,” he said.

There is a point where the announcement runs into itself. The same day, Vucic also said no commission in the world could establish who is to blame for the delay. A financial penalty, however, is not a measure imposed on a construction site as a whole, but on the contracting party that missed its deadline. If, by the president’s own account, responsibility cannot be pinned on any single participant, the announced penalty remains a threat aimed at everyone at once.

That is why the second part of the announcement carries more weight than the first. The condition, no new job until this one is finished, does not touch the contract currently underway. It touches contracts that have yet to be awarded, and it hits companies that, as Vucic put it, use new jobs to finance old ones.

Criticism of unnamed ministers

Part of the visit was aimed at the government. The president called out cabinet members who went on vacation “even though they haven’t finished the job,” without specifying who he meant.

“Everyone who works, contractors and designers alike, can be as angry at me as they want. I don’t understand how they can take a day off without having finished a project of historic importance for Serbia. That includes people from the government, too. Fine, we have families, but we also have a job to do. I’m terribly angry, I’m always angry at myself above all, that we haven’t managed to speed all this up, and now there will be no easy way out, and now we’ll have to check on it and introduce financial penalties. There’s no other way, sometimes you have to threaten, because all of them are financing some old jobs with new ones. Fine, no new job until you finish this one, everything has to be done by December 1,” Vucic said.

Since no name was mentioned, the reproach falls on the government as a whole, and it was not said which ministry is behind on which part of the work. A criticism that vague also has a practical consequence: without an addressee, no one is obliged to answer for it.

What is being built at the Old Railway Bridge

The Old Railway Bridge is being raised by 2.6 meters so ships can pass beneath it, and its steel structure is being reinforced for its new purpose. Instead of a rail track, the structure will get three levels:

• a first level for pedestrians
• a second with cafes and open-air gardens
• a third as a viewing platform, which Vucic said would be one of the most beautiful in Belgrade

At the same site, the president also spoke about the rail link between the airport and downtown Belgrade, with a station in Novi Beograd, which he said should be finished by December. All the projects the state has launched in preparation for Expo 2027 must be completed before the exhibition itself opens.

The president handed out ice cream to workers who had been on site in the heat and thanked them for their work.

The calendar has thus set its own test. By December 1 it will be clear whether the penalties and the new conditions on future contracts have actually changed the pace of work on the bridge, or whether the deadline slips toward April, and from there toward the date that can no longer move, the opening of Expo 2027.