Transylvania city gets EU funding to refurbish historic area
The City Hall of Deva, in Romania’s Transylvania region, received EUR 4.2 million in EU funding to refurbish its historical downtown area, between Deva Fortress Park and Unirii Square, Adevarul reported.
The project will be implemented between October 2019 and June 2022. It has a total value of RON 21.8 million (EUR 4.6 million), out of which the non-refundable funding is of RON 20.1 million (EUR 4.2 million). The Deva municipality will provide a co-financing of RON 1.7 million (EUR 367,365).
The project entails the refurbishment of the urban area between the city’s Unirii Square and of the segment in historical area of the December 1st 1918 boulevard, which will be available for pedestrian and car traffic.
In order to lower the CO2 emissions, a unitary pavement for pedestrian areas will be built, while the green spaces in the area will be refurbished and new ones will be added. An irrigation system for the green areas will also be added, alongside adequate public lighting, according to the project. A system to reduce traffic in the downtown area will also be designed. Furthermore, the aerial cables will be lowered underground, video surveillance cameras will be added, and street furniture appropriate for a historical center will be added.
At the same time, an exclusively pedestrian area will be created in Unirii Square, while a pedestrian and semi-pedestrian one will be created on the December 1st 1918 boulevard, between Avram Iancu street and Iuliu Maniu boulevard.
The promenade area in Unirii Square was set up at the beginning of 2000s but it is often taken up by cars. The municipality installed barriers to mark off the area for pedestrians and ban cars for entering, with the exception of those belonging to public institutions headquartered in the area. A schedule for the cars coming to supply stores and venues in the historical center was also designed. In time, however, the barriers were broken and the warnings of the local Police concerning the pedestrian use of the area ignored Adevarul reported.
