Putevi d.o.o. (Ltd.) Ivanjica is a company that has been operating successfully and overcoming challenges for 55 years
Located in the town of Ivanjica in southwest Serbia, company Putevi deals with the maintenance of state roads, the construction and reconstruction of roads and streets and the construction of smaller structures. It has a complete production process, from the production of stone and stone aggregates at its two quarries to the production and installation of asphalt, concrete and concrete prefabricates.
As of the past five years, it has been the exclusive partner of Deltabloc International, from Sollenau, Austria, for the territory of Serbia, and manufactures and installs under license concrete safety barriers and anti-noise road barriers. The company has been led for over 25 years by c.e. Stojan Rangelov.
Mr Rangelov, as a professional who is at the head of a company, focused on road construction, how would you explain the fact that Serbia has been unable to resolve the issues of its own infrastructure for decades?
– Resolving this issue has for years been hounded by a series of objective and sometimes subjective circumstances. Primarily, the country in crisis, lacking its own financial resources, previously also sources of credit, objectively couldn’t solve many infrastructure issues. Really a lot is being done on that today, but in some places, the impression remains that there is a gap between the profession and investors.
I believe a good solution would be to form a council composed of top experts from this field, designers, the faculty for construction, contractors, engineers, and of course state representatives which would provide guidance on the needs, dynamics and methodology for carrying out works or projects. Nevertheless, the most important thing is that Serbia is building more rapidly.
Our combined systems, safety barriers and anti-noise barriers are unique in the world and bring significant savings
You are the only company in the country licensed to produce security and noise barriers. In your opinion, is setting noise and safety barriers becoming standard practice in Serbia?
– Our partner, Deltabloc International, part of the Austrian-based “MABA” and “Kirchdorfer” groups, operates on almost all continents and in more 55 countries worldwide. Almost all over the world, including in our country, European Traffic Safety Standards (SRPS EN 1317) are becoming the norm. In Europe, the standards are being upgraded every day, it is requested higher standards for the safety both the vehicles and the passengers.
In Serbia, we have the Rulebook with the mandatory application, but the obligation is determined by the will of the participants. What we, as “Putevi” Ivanjica, can say is that we have contributed to education and, with the local production and installation of over five kilometres of security barriers, traffic safety.
We are particularly proud of the part of the Zrenjanin Road where there hasn’t been a human casualty since the moment we installed the system, while the number of serious accidents has also fallen drastically. We have prepared solutions for the “Northern tangent” and for the highway through Belgrade and also have unique bridge systems that do not transfer energy impacts to the bridge structure and which provide the highest prescribed level of protection.
Are you satisfied with the status of domestic companies in your field, given that the jobs you deal with are on the up throughout the country?
– We realise that our roadworks companies are in crisis; we are among only five or six that are liquid and have overcome difficult times, but I think that by associating, through joint ventures, we can successfully and professionally perform the jobs entrusted to us. It was precisely this shortage of work from the public enterprise “Putevi Srbije” and the state that compelled us to turn to private investors, prefabrication and municipalities.
I understand that the competent Ministry is taking steps to engage domestic companies, especially on the rehabilitation of state roads, where we are subcontractors and think that they will be very satisfied with the choice they made.