Construction of a waste processing plant has resumed in Lviv. Gribovytske landfill has not been forgotten either
19 December 2024 17:28
A Polish contractor has resumed construction of a waste processing plant in Lviv. This was announced on December 19 during a session of the Lviv City Council by Oleksandr Yegorov, head of the Lviv municipal enterprise Green Lviv, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports.
As you know, the construction of a solid waste treatment plant was temporarily suspended due to the contractor’s violation of an essential term of the contract. The construction contractor is the Polish company Control Process SA
Now, according to Oleksandr Yegorov, an additional agreement has been signed with the contractor, which regulates all the rules of the game until the end of the project.
“We have set clear deadlines for commissioning the facility – June 30, 2025. And the commissioning works should be completed by August 30, 2025. I would like to note that today there are already more than 40% of the equipment at the plant, which has already been checked by engineers and consultants. We have also checked some equipment that is still abroad. We are going to inspect some of the equipment. It should be delivered to the plant by the end of February next year. So all the processes have been launched,” said Mr. Yegorov.
He emphasized that the city currently has no debt obligations to the contractor, Control Process SA.
The head of the Lviv municipal enterprise “Green Lviv” expressed hope that “the contractor will fulfill all the obligations set out in the contract and there will be no double standards and no playing between the lines.”
Why the conflict with the plant construction contractor arose
The Polish company Control Process SA violated the essential terms of the construction contract. A message about this, referring to a meeting of the temporary control commission of the city council on the activities of the Lviv municipal enterprise Zelenyi Misto , appeared in late September on the Information Portal of the deputies of the Lviv City Council
At that time, representatives of Zelenyi Misto reported that a crisis situation had actually developed – the agreement with the Polish contractor could be considered terminated, as Control Process SA had not extended the unconditional bank guarantee of EUR 3.6 million for the contract within the specified time. Several rounds of negotiations were held to sign an additional agreement, but they were unsuccessful.
As a result, work on the site was halted, and the municipal enterprise Zelenyi Misto notified the bank of the recovery of funds from the contractor.
At the same time, the City Council Commission gave a protocol instruction to the First Deputy Mayor – Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Andriy Moskalenko to provide a plan to overcome this crisis situation and inform how it would affect the cost of the work and how much it would shift the project implementation timeframe.
It is also worth reminding that on September 12, the city council granted permission to LKP Zelenyi Misto to obtain a loan for the completion of the waste processing plant.
As reported on the Lviv City Council’s website in early August this year, the construction of the waste processing plant has already been completed by 65%.
What about the reclamation of the Hrybovychi landfill?
This landfill with over 60 years of history is notorious both for its environmental impact on the region and for the fire that caused the whole of Ukraine to learn about the waste crisis in Lviv, and the garbage from Lviv began to travel almost all over Ukraine in search of storage or recycling facilities. This happened in 2016.
The main work on the reclamation of this landfill began only in the fall of 2020. The Turkish consortium J/V GOKSIN INSAAT – HAYAT GROUP took over the work. As of August 2021, 35-40% of the landfill’s reclamation was completed, and a year later, in June 2022, 75% of the work was completed. At the time, it was said that the technical phase would last until the end of 2022, but it was delayed due to the war.
The Turkish construction company Goksin Insaat has already completed a lot of work: leveling 26.5 hectares of the landfill in the form of terraces, covering them with a drainage geocomposite to collect and discharge gases, and creating a gas extraction system. For protection, the area was sealed with a waterproof membrane to prevent the formation of toxic leachate from rainwater. Subsequently, they will start creating a park here.
on December 19, the director of the Green Lviv Municipal Company informed that the next phase of reclamation work at the Hrybovychi landfill would begin in February next year. The relevant agreement with the contractor was signed on December 4 this year. The work will be funded by the European Investment Bank and should be completed in 2025.
