Ministry of Defense requesting verification of structural stability of General Staff building

In January, the Serbian Ministry of Defense invited several institutions and a private company to determine the stability and resistance of the structures of the General Staff building complex in downtown Belgrade, according to a document that Insajder has seen. According to that document, the invitation was sent to the faculties of civil engineering in Belgrade, Nis and Subotica, the Novi Sad Faculty of Technical Sciences, the republic and city institutes for the protection of cultural monuments, the IMS Institute, the Serbian Chamber of Engineers and the private company Centar za konstrukcije from Subotica.

– Considering the significant time distance since the last intervention, as well as the assessment that further collapse of the buildings could endanger traffic, safety and the lives of passers-by, we invite the competent institutions to review the documentation and take measures, in order to review and determine the comprehensive current state and determine the static stability of the structure and resistance – the invitation from the Ministry of Defense reads.

The Ministry did not respond to Insajder’s questions about the purpose of such an invitation, or whether it has anything to do with the plan to hand over the location to an investor.

The most recent study on the condition of these buildings was conducted by the IMS Institute in 2014, after which the Government decided that part of “Facility A” be removed, but for the purpose of complete reconstruction and restoration to the condition before the 1999 bombing.

IMS told Insajder that it would respond to the invitation this time as well and that they had already attended a meeting at the Ministry of Defense.

For now, IMS has only been asked to provide an overview of the activities necessary to assess the condition of the facility, and any assessment requires investigative work.

It is only “on that basis, with the help of experts, that the owner of the facility will decide what needs to be done with the facility. I think this is the right path to take in analyzing the condition of the facilities, and after comprehensive analyses, it is necessary to decide what is best to do,” Dragan Bojovic, Director General of the IMS Institute, told Insajder.

The private company Centar za konstrukcije from Subotica, owned by Professor Danijel Kukaras of the Novi Sad Faculty of Technical Sciences, said that they had received the invitation, but were unable to accept the job.

– We are unable to respond affirmatively to this invitation. We see it as an invitation to submit our offer, but the letter is written in such a way that it is not even clear what it is about. In addition, the Faculty of Civil Engineering has its own position on the buildings of the General Staff – stated Kukaras.

Ministarstvo odbrane Republike Srbije

Građevinski fakultet Beograd

Zavod za zaštitu spomenika kulture Grada Beograda

Republički zavod za zaštitu spomenika kulture Beograd

Inženjerska komora Srbije Beograd

Institut IMS a.d. Beograd

Građevinski fakultet Subotica

Ministry of Defense of Serbia

Faculty of Civil Engineering Nis

Faculty of Civil Engineering Belgrade

Faculty of Civil Engineering Subotica

Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments Belgrade

Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments Serbia

IMS Institute

Serbian Chamber of Engineers

Centar za konstrukcije Subotica

Dragan Bojovic

Danijel Kukaras

former General Staff building

stability

inspection