A streetlight pole recently collapsed onto a tram at Unirii Square in Bucharest. It was quickly repaired, but in a bizarre manner: installed upside down. The top is embedded in the sidewalk, with coiled cables around the „foot.”
Nicușor Dan provided explanations on Monday regarding this oddity.
"If we had the funds, we should have replaced 2-3,000 poles in these four years that have long exceeded their validity period. Because we didn't have this money, and this money went to replacing cobblestones with other cobblestones, we found ourselves in this situation. Due to the many infrastructure elements that have exceeded their lifespan, due to this underfunding of 20 years, we are forced to make improvisations," said Nicușor Dan, as quoted by Mediafax.
He specifies that the pole "had to exist because inside it, there were some cables that powered the tram."
"So, the alternative was to stop the tram. It was temporarily installed, and when a new pole is ready, I don't know, a week, two weeks, it will come and replace it. But at that time, it was a temporary solution to avoid stopping tram traffic."
The photo of the pole installed upside down went viral last week.
It refers to the one that fell onto a new tram in the roundabout at Unirii Square, affecting lines 7, 27, 32, and 47.
