Tirana municipality to use concrete manhole covers to address metal theft

Tirana Times
By Tirana Times October 23, 2015 11:18

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  • The new covers will “have no scrap value,” the mayor wrote on Twitter. “The battle on vandalism requires punishment, but also creativity.”

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Municipal authorities are working to replace 4,000 missing manhole covers across Tirana. (Photo: MoT)

Municipal authorities are working to replace 4,000 missing manhole covers across Tirana. (Photo: MoT)

TIRANA, Oct. 22 – Tirana's local government will switch to using concrete-composite manhole covers starting next year to address rampant theft of metal covers which are then sold for scrap metal, Mayor Erion Veliaj said this week.

The new covers will “have no scrap value,” the mayor wrote on Twitter. “The battle on vandalism requires punishment, but also creativity.”

The mayor said municipal workers are currently replacing 4,000 missing manhole covers across the municipality, starting with sidewalks and streets close to schools.

Missing manhole covers have become a major concern in Tirana and across the country over the years as thieves steal them and sell them for scrap to smelting shops.

The open holes then lead to accidents for both pedestrians and vehicles.

Authorities have vowed to increase the penalties not only for the thieves, but also for any smelting business who accepts the stolen property.

The theft of public property to be sold for scrap has been a major concern in Albania, leaving a bad taste with the city's residents as a symbol of lack of rule of law.

One of the most visible problems was a monument in downtown Tirana that commemorates 100 years of independence, which Albania marked in 2012.

The monument had been repeatedly vandalized, its bronze plating stolen in places to be sold for scrap.

It has now been under reconstruction by the municipality for more than a month.

Veliaj said on his first day in office he would start work on an emergency list of the city’s needs, which include missing manhole covers and ruined sidewalks and roads.

Tirana Times
By Tirana Times October 23, 2015 11:18