Bucharest Mayor Ciprian Ciucu signed in late December a €29.7 million loan agreement with the Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB) to finance the consolidation of six buildings at seismic risk.
The funding will support the strengthening of the Gheorghe Tăttărescu Museum building and five residential blocks housing 184 families. These interwar period buildings include some historical monuments and others located in protected areas.
The total value of works for the six buildings amounts to RON 229 million (€45 million). Forty percent of the funding comes from Romania's National Recovery and Resilience Plan, while 60% is covered by Bucharest City Hall through this loan. The municipality will recover half the amount from property owners over the next 10-15 years.
Bucharest has 411 buildings classified as seismic risk class I and another 486 classified as seismic risk class II. However, in the past 30 years, only 35 buildings have been consolidated using public funds. The Municipal Administration for Consolidating Buildings with Seismic Risk currently has 14 properties under work, including six covered by the recent co-financing, six others funded by the local budget, and two through the National Programme for Consolidating Buildings with Seismic Risk. Five additional seismic risk class I buildings are set to enter consolidation, with owner relocation and execution contracts currently being finalised.
