Infrastructure and public service challenges reported in Albania and North Macedonia

In Albania, a new tender has been launched to repair the Lower Ring of Burrel after the initial 1.3 million euro road segment suffered four major collapses just one month after completion. The Albanian Road Authority is seeking an additional 930,000 euros to fix the 960-meter stretch, which has become impassable. The contract for the repairs has been awarded to the company ‘2N’ sh.p.k., which offered 87 million lek. Total costs for the short road segment are now expected to exceed 2.2 million euros.

In North Macedonia, the City of Skopje has paid approximately 46 million denars (around 750,000 euros) over the past year in compensation to citizens bitten by stray dogs. The public enterprise ‘Llajka’ has received over 700 reports regarding stray dog captures this year. Despite these costs, residents continue to report high numbers of dogs in various neighborhoods. Officials attribute the issue to irresponsible pet ownership and uncontrolled increases in the domestic dog population. A 2023 monitoring report estimated there are roughly 4,000 stray dogs in the Skopje territory.