Recently the Department of Information and Public Relations of Yerevan Municipality informed us about the planned repair and construction works in the capital city this year. According to the information provided, the program of major repairs includes repair of numerous educational, cultural and recreational institutions and roads. “Within the framework of Asian Development Bank we have projects for 30 kindergartens”,- said Grigor Harutyunyan, head of the Department of Construction and Improvement of Yerevan Municipality. Three important cultural centers will be renovated during this year. The Theater of the Young Spectator, the City Youth Creativity Center, Children and Youth Creative Civil Center and the Exhibition hall of the People's Artist of Armenia Eduard Isabekyan soon will function in completely new environment. Improvement of the exhibition hall is one of the main tasks, if we take into account the fact that there are about 30 paintings, and the hall does not have the necessary conditions for humidity, lighting and temperature. “The problem is acute, since the paintings are already damaged. Paint layers are swollen and cracked. The exhibition hall will begin to work, will be reborn, there will be many expositions”, said the Director of the Exhibition hall Irina Isabekyan. 10.000 m² of road will be repaired this year in Yerevan - twice as much as last year. Considerable work will also be done on the construction and improvement of parks, new sidewalks, the replacement of walls, curbs and the irrigation network. Four pedestrian underpasses will also be repaired in 2020. “This year we have approved a budget of 300 million drams and have already ordered projects for the following pedestrian underpasses: Grigor Lusavorich Street, Mashtots Avenue, Azatutyun Avenue (“Lambada” bridge) and Tamantsineri Street”, noted Grigor Harutyunyan. Let’s recall, that in 2019 we already talked about pedestrian underpasses in the article “Underpasses in Yerevan Take a New Breath”. The municipality of Yerevan began the repair works in underpasses in December: “300.0 million drams were allocated for the project, however, the construction work is ongoing in three underground passes for which contract agreements for 44.0 million drams have been signed. ” The primary medical care centers are also in the spotlight. Along with the program of equipping clinics with medical equipment, overhauls will be carried out in medical centers. This year there are 5 policlinics in the program. Clinic #12 with an area of 8,000 square meters will be repaired in stages. This year the problem of bathrooms and power supply of the whole building will be solved, cabinet doors will be replaced.

The pride of any nation is its historical past. Armenia, which has a rich historical and cultural past, is of great interest to the whole world. It is no secret that every Armenian visiting the Erebuni Museum feels a sense of pride and excitement, and at the same time, there are a number of questions that the director of the Museum-Reserve Mikael Badalyan did not manage to answer during our first interview. - Mr. Badalyan, are there any new discoveries during the excavations of recent years that the public does not yet know about? - Yes, there are. Under this soil there is a square basalt basin built in the Urartian period. Can you imagine what a wave of interest this will cause if we open a pool and a recently discovered sewer with basalt pipes? During the joint Armenian-French excavations of 2014-2016, the foundations of the temple, which belong to an earlier period, were discovered under the columned hall. Besides, during excavations, terass-shaped structures were discovered, which were again covered with soil… Since the Urartian temples had square layouts, we assume that this is a temple, because it has a very solid foundation. We intend to continue the excavations in summer … The excavations also showed that an earthquake happened here during the Urartian period. At least two earthquakes were recorded here, the first of which dates back to the first half of the 7th century B.C. when the ancient city of Karmir Blur or Teishebaini was built. And there in Karmir blur shields and pedestals were found, on which it is written Erebuni. That is why we assume that the earthquake could be one of the reasons that at some point these items were moved from here to Karmir Blur. In 2010, together with the German archeologists, we conducted geomagnetic studies on a hill in the territory of reserve. The studies showed, that underground there is a building 120m long and 60m wide, with large and small rooms. In 2019 together with the French group we scanned the same part with the help of Lidar scanner, and our assumption was confirmed. - How do you see the solution to the problem of the fortress maintenance? - I think the emergency sites need to be reinforced first. The second stage is the preservation and reconstruction of the excavations in the volume in which they exist. I am talking about the Urartian Street, the columned hall, the temple, the drainage system, the pottery hall, which we dug up, and again covered with soil. So these are sites, which are of great interest to the visitors. The Erebuni fortress is a complex structure, since during excavations, buildings of different eras are discovered, one erected on the other, which gives rise to scientific debates. For example, the columned hall dates to the post-Urartian period of the kingdom Yervanduni, and the Susi temple - the amphora hall of King Argishti I, most likely belongs to a different era. We plan to use the land sifted from the excavations this fall at the Land Art Festival dedicated to one of the founders of the world land art, Marcos Grigorian. The participants of the festival will be well-known artists Narek Avetisyan and Arthur Oshakantsi, as well as specialists from Iran. Recently, our guest was the choreographer Rudolf Kharatyan. After the tour, we had an interesting idea to organize the staging of the Urartu ritual in the Erebuni fortress this fall.

In December 2019, the Council of Elders of Yerevan approved a cooperation agreement signed on October 3 by Mayor of Yerevan Hayk Marutyan and the “John and Sos Balian Foundation” on the construction of a new building of the Historical and Archaeological Museum-Reserve Erebuni. The modern building must fit the entire architecture and at the same time be equipped with the latest technologies. The new building will have scientific laboratories, new exhibition halls for animated expositions, where the visitors will get acquainted with the history of Yerevan with the help of virtual tours. The total project will cost more than 1.65 million USD. The idea itself is good, but given the current state of the complex, the question arises of how urgent and important it is to build a new building, since the complex already has its finished appearance. The director of museum-preserve Mikael Badalyan told us, that the new building will be two or three storey, depended on financing. - Mr. Badalyan, are there any plans to restore the Fortress? - There are. And we believe that such projects should be carefully considered by specialists, since Erebuni is the visiting card of Yerevan, and this is the case when we do not have a right for any mistake. - In recent years, the state of Erebuni Fortress has worsened։ everywhere there are earth mounds, boards, firewood… Is this the result of recent excavations? - No, we clean up carefully after each excavation ... Nevertheless, here we have boards, that are part of the Urartian columned hall … We tried to lift them, but they are too heavy, so we need appropriate equipment, which implies extra costs. Now we are considering the possibility of their disposal in the courtyard of the museum… As for the earth mounds and woods, we already tried to remove everything as far as our funds allowed us. We plan to continue cleaning in spring, however, these works are associated with high financial costs … And yet, we have done a great job. For example, the museum did not have drinking water, which was a serious obstacle for visitors. We have solved the problem with CJSC “Veolia Jur” with the support of the French Embassy in Armenia … In the nearest future we plan to install three-dimensional stands. For this we use the museum budget and also work with donors. By the way, the installed stands will greatly improve the situation.... Imagine, that you look at the columned hall and see only anchors of columns, walls. It is interesting for the specialists, but the visitors will not be impressed. And when they see a three-dimensional image, photographs, a plan of buildings in three languages, this will have a great impression on tourists and local visitors … In the museum itself the visitors will watch the exhibition, but in the new building they will gain additional knowledge through an animated show.

One of the strategic projects of Yerevan Municipality for 2020 will be the enlargement of green areas in the capital city. «In 2020 a completely new approach to greening will be applied. Reconstruction of green areas will begin with the development of integrated solutions and environmental projects»,- noted the first deputy mayor Hrachya Sargsyan. It is noteworthy, that the greening program includes also the “apple of discord” in the form of forest belt near the former Paros restaurant. Besides, it is planned to create forest protection zones in the following areas: Saralanji – 10 ha, Silikyan district, Ajapnyak - 7.0 ha, Nubarashen highway - 8.5 ha, the territory adjacent to Aquapark (the right slope) - 12 ha. A new solution is also planned for 4.5 hectares of green spaces adjacent to the recently built Ashtarak-Davtashen highway. The park named after Komitas will also be reconstructed, as well as the garden squares named after Saryan and Abovyan. The presence of artificial forests will naturally ease the environmental problems of the capital. And for more effective organization of these issues, the mayor's office decided to create Community NGO named «Greening and Environmental Protection». «Community NGO will centralize the funds provided by the municipality for greening and will clearly manage them … It will have its own seedbed, its technical and transport park. This NGO will apply special landscape and architectural approaches and environmental solutions», - said the first deputy mayor. It's no secret that people "on their own skin" feel the negative effect of reducing the green spaces. To solve this problem in the capital, trees were planted several times in order to increase green spaces. And here we had to deal with an equally acute problem, the problem of irrigation. And today, when the mayor's office decided to increase the green areas in the capital, we believe that first of all the problem of uninterrupted irrigation should be resolved. We tried to find out in more detail which approach will be used for irrigation. According to municipal data, the city government has several projects to accomplish this goal: use groundwater, deep wells and inactive pumping stations. Speaking about the problem of air pollution in the capital, Hrachya Sargsyan noted that the main cause of the problem is the ongoing construction work and operating mines. According to municipal data, the solution of environmental problems is not limited to increase of green spaces. Hrachya Sargsyan explained that community NGO will also deal with waste sorting, in particular, the creation and maintenance of waste collection points.

In a few days, the construction of the main section of Yerevan-Sevan-Ijevan-Azerbaijan border Interstate (M-4) highway will be completed. The road has already been assessed by users. «We did not even feel how we reached Ijevan. That road has always been bumpy and uncomfortable for traffic. In general, the road Yerevan - Sevan – Ijevan now is of very high quality, which greatly facilitates the travel»,- mentioned the drivers we interviewed. Of course, quality is an important guarantee of a good road, and both construction companies and construction materials are responsible for quality. We learned from the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure Development of RA how the construction works were carried out. According to the given information, average repair works now are proceeding: milling of old asphalt concrete, pavement repair, smoothing and installation of asphalt concrete pavement. Major repairs have been carried out in some areas. The construction of highway is implemented with preservation of asphalt concrete technology: the road consists of one layer 5 cm thick. According to the information provided by the ministry, the following construction companies have carried out the construction of various sections of the road: «Chanaparh» Ltd, «AAB project» Ltd, «Ararat-Chanshin» Ltd. The latter is responsible for the refurbishment of 129.1km and 135.4km segments of the highway Yerevan-Sevan-Ijevan-Azerbaijan border. The works are planned to be finished by 10th of December 2019. The length of the refurbished segment of the Interstate (M-4) highway «Yerevan-Sevan-Ijevan-Azerbaijan border» is 58.9 km, 3,271M AMD has been allocated for the implementation of the project. Are similar road construction projects envisaged in 2020 and how much money is planned to spend? - we made this inquiry in the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure of RA. «Definitely, as for the amount allocated, at this moment I can not say for sure... At present, the reconstruction project envisages the repair of 244.4 km road»,- David Kartashyan, the Head of the Road Policy Department, explained in a telephone conversation with us.