Parapets patched with concrete and stone tiles: Dissatisfaction with the work on the rehabilitation of parts of the coastal infrastructure is growing

The way in which the Public Enterprise Morsko dobro carries out works on the rehabilitation of parts of the coastal infrastructure and old stone parapet walls in Boka Bay has caused numerous negative reactions.

This particularly applies to the repair of damaged stone walls - parapets on the local road Tivat - Prčanj - Kotor, in the area of ​​the Verige Strait. Instead of repairing the damaged parapets as required by the tender (rearranging the existing stone, re-building in cement mortar and final grouting, purchasing the missing 15-20 centimeter long cut stone, re-building in MB 30 concrete and final grouting), the contractor in Verige initially installed cut stone tiles several centimeters thick, glued into the concrete, on the damaged parapets from which vandals had knocked out and stolen large cut stone elements.

Where the contractors did not have enough of such stone, it was simply concreted over, instead of installing solid stone blocks cut to the appropriate dimensions into the parapet.

After citizens noticed such work, which in itself is additional devastation of the parapet, the walls, which were "patched" with mortar and cut stone tiles, have in the meantime been renovated again, but this time with the installation of slightly larger stone tiles, similar to those that were supposed to be used according to the original tender specifications.

However, even then it is clear that the renovation of the parapet in Verige was carried out with visible deviations from the old stone wall and the environment. There is a noticeable difference between the original wall and the new part of the parapet. Stone of a different color, structure and processing method was used, which raises the question of why the same or at least a suitable type of stone was not used as on the existing wall.

The changed method of laying the stones is also visible. The jointing, or grouting, of the new wall is significantly different from the original, which spoils the appearance of the parapet, and the final layer looks particularly bad where the walls were poured with concrete, into which the contour of the stone blocks and the joints between them were "drawn" until it hardened.

Even after more than seven days, the Coastal Zone Authority has not responded to "Vijesti"'s questions about the way in which they "repaired" the damaged stone parapets. It has not been answered who was the contractor for the work, who supervised it, or how satisfied JPMD, as the investor, is with the way the work was done.

The Coastal Zone Authority announced on December 11 that "works have begun in the municipality of Tivat on the rehabilitation of parapet walls along the road, and the first phase includes a section approximately 150 meters long."

"The value of this phase of work is around 100.000 euros. The work began today in the Lepetane area, continuing the implementation of planned activities to improve the coastal zone," JPMD said at the time, without stating who is carrying out the work and who is providing expert supervision.

In October, JPMD announced a tender for "maintenance of coastal infrastructure in the coastal zone" with an estimated value of 400.000 euros including VAT, which, among other things, included works on the rehabilitation of damaged old stone parapet walls in Boka.

Parapets, which were mostly built during the Austro-Hungarian rule over Boka, or immediately after, are part of the traditional architectural heritage of these regions, as well as part of the recognizable visual identity of Boka's coastal roads. In addition to their utilitarian and technical function of improving traffic safety on narrow and winding roads along the coast, their primary purpose is to serve as retaining walls or retaining walls that physically prevent vehicles from falling off the roadway into the sea. Parapets also have a secondary role as a kind of physical barrier that protects the most exposed parts of the roadway from the impact of sea waves.

In the Tivat area, the most impressive and numerous old traditional stone parapets are located on the part of the coastal road Tivat - Lepetane - Stoliv - Prčanj - Muo - Kotor, as well as on the part of the road below the Ivovića park in Donja Lastva. There are also newer examples of their construction, aesthetically not much inferior to the old parapets from a century and a half ago, because stone parapets also partially exist along the Adriatic Highway from Lepetane to Opatovo.

This part of the cultural heritage and an example of the use of natural materials is often threatened by criminal activity by unscrupulous individuals who often destroy parapets in an organized manner and steal the processed cut stone from these walls.

However, about ten years ago, the Municipality of Tivat itself initiated an action to restore part of the devastated parapets towards Verige, on the plateau above the Church of Our Lady of the Angels and further towards Stoliv to the administrative border of that and the Municipality of Kotor. The effects of that action, unfortunately, were short-lived, as criminals very quickly began to destroy the parapets again and remove the newly installed new stone from them.

Completely wrong "renovation" of the mullah in Dobrota

There are still bad examples of the way in which the Coastal Property "restores" traditional architectural heritage on the coastal infrastructure in Boka Bay, and perhaps one of the most illustrative is the way in which one of the mula that forms a large mandrać in front of the medieval Ivanović Palace in Dobrota near Kotor was renovated in 2024.

This was pointed out to "Viesti" by one of the residents of Dobrota, long-distance captain Veljko Zvicer, who used to use the mandrać to moor his boat, but, as he said, he can no longer do so after a company from Nikšić, working for Morsko dobro, "renovated" the pier on the east side of the mandrać in the spring of 2024.

"They poured a new concrete base below sea level, on both sides and at the front of the pier, outside the dimensions of the stone pier that was built. It might have been okay if they had then built new sides of the pier with stone in those increased dimensions on that base, but they did not do that, instead they left the bare concrete base below sea level, so that now a boat can no longer dock without the risk of damaging the boat by hitting the concrete underwater. That was not enough for them either, so they then poured concrete on the entire pier, built on dry land, from the top. They allegedly started to extract some of the large stones that had rolled deeper down the seabed in the meantime under the influence of sea erosion, and that they would supposedly re-install them in the pier, but then they gave up and left those large boulders on the seabed, at the very entrance to the mandrać, drastically reducing the depth of the sea. This created a physical obstacle that no boat with a slightly larger draft could cross at all when the tide was high. "They cannot cross or enter the mandrać," Zvicer told "Vijesti".

He pointed out that despite promises, the rest of this mandraca, or rather its moat on the western and southern sides, have not been touched to this day, even though they are in very poor condition.

The Coastal District did not respond to "Vijesti"'s questions regarding the renovation of the mandrače in Dobrota. Nor did it answer when the Coastal District will renovate all the remaining stone mula and mandrače in Dobrota, which have been in a terribly poor condition for years.