Vasilissis Olgas Avenue successful Athens is reopened to citizens aft six years of “reconstruction”, which ended against the backdrop of a governmental contention betwixt the erstwhile and existent mayors of the city, arsenic well arsenic a grandiose “cut” of the budget.
Let us punctual you that the street was closed successful 2020 during the mayor’s term. Kostas Bakoyannis with the purpose of transforming it into a much comfy nationalist space with precedence for pedestrians and constricted traffic.
What has changed
As a effect of reconstruction, the avenue became portion of a single municipality space connecting cardinal points successful the halfway of Athens:
- Panathinaikos (Kallimarmaro) With Acropolis,
- Zappeion With columns of the Temple of Olympian Zeus,
- pedestrian zones with constricted αυτοκίνητο traffic.
Position of the existent mayor
Mayor of Athens Haris Doukas stated that completing the task has go his team’s priority: “Out of the six years the roadworthy remained closed, there was really nary work done for 3.5 years. We sped up the process and completed the task within two years.”
video from 2025
According to him, the renovated street is simply a “multimodal space” and “a decoration of the city.”
The erstwhile mayor’s response
Former politician Kostas Bakoyannisin turn, emphasized that it was his medication that initiated and launched the project: “Vasilissis Olgas is not conscionable a road, but a caller surviving nationalist space that we conceived and realized.”
Oh, είναι επιτέλους ξανά ανοιχτή.
Όχι απλώς ένας δρόμος.
Ένας νέος ζωντανός δημόσιος χώρος.
Ελάτε να τον ανακαλύψετε. pic.twitter.com/aEmF14oiJz
— Kostas Bakoyannis (@KBakoyannis) April 7, 2026
He besides noted that the determination to adjacent the traffic was hard and caused criticism, but successful the extremity the transformation of the territory justified itself.
Political contention surrounding the project
The opening of the updated avenue was accompanied by communal reproaches betwixt the teams of the two mayors.
- Bakoyannis’s broadside states that the task was not implemented by the municipality, but done “Ανάπλαση ΑΕ”,
- and Doukas’s disapproval had antecedently been governmental successful nature.
As a result, the reconstruction, which lasted for six years, ended not lone with the opening of the road, but besides with the struggle for governmental authorship.
Editorial comment
The story of Vasilissis Olgas Avenue is not conscionable a street reconstruction, but an indicator of however infrastructure projects successful Athens turn into protracted governmental stories with an unfastened ending.
Formally, we are talking astir a task that began during the inaugural play “Big Walk”accompanied by superior nationalist outcry and questions astir the ratio of spending funds.
It is estimated that astir 2.5 cardinal euroswhich is acold from a symbolic magnitude for the metropolis budget. At the aforesaid time, a important portion of the decisions of that play were criticized, and the task itself was yet revised aft the alteration of government.
After this, work virtually froze for years, turning 1 of the cardinal arteries of the metropolis halfway into a semipermanent operation task that has go an irritant for residents and businesses.
And lone successful caller months the task was completed astatine an accelerated pace, which successful itself raises questions:
- why did it take six years to implement,
- where did the funds spell successful the erstwhile stages,
- and why the last stage was the fastest.
This whole story fits into a signifier acquainted to Athens:
- loud start
- controversial decisions and expenses,
- freezing the project,
- change of power,
- and the last decision with the struggle for governmental authorship.
At the aforesaid time, against the inheritance of chronic problems of the metropolis – from the state of infrastructure to the shortage of affordable lodging – such projects inevitably rise questions astir the ratio of assets management.
Because what is important to citizens is not the governmental marque of the project, but the elemental result: to support the streets working money was spent transparentlyand terms were not measured successful years.
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