“The Patras-Pyrgos highway that is delivered for use today, was something like the Thessaloniki metro. The long-term state incompetence had led a large part of the local community to treat it like a model project that would never be delivered,” notes Minister of State Akis Skertsos, in a Facebook post.
“A state-of-the-art highway meeting European standards”
“However, finally,” he adds, “immediately after the 2019 elections it was redesigned from scratch as a project, tendered, awarded to a contractor and is now being delivered. A state-of-the-art, European-standard, safe highway that extends the northern road axis of the Peloponnese from Athens to Pyrgos.
Just as with the people of Thessaloniki, so too with the people of Pyrgos, we owe first and above all as a political system an apology for the long-term delay. Citizens’ trust in politics’ ability to solve their daily problems is a constant battle of endurance and speed. To win it takes years and it can be lost in a few days,” he emphasizes and adds:
“This road is very important for another reason as well. We are talking about an old ‘death trap’ road that claimed the lives of hundreds of young people in previous years, plunging their families into permanent mourning.
We deliver it primarily in memory of these people and their families with one and only wish: that our country finally stops paying an unthinkable blood toll every year thanks to the comprehensive interventions we are making in road networks, traffic code, traffic policing and violation monitoring through cameras – a toll that unfortunately equals 11 Tempi accidents annually.
Greece changes only with persistence, hard work, memory and a plan for the future,” he concludes.
