An Almaty resident using the Instagram handle batuhtina has complained about road repairs that forced changes to a school schedule, while the city administration disclosed the timeline for completing the work, according to infohub.kz.
According to the author of the post, residents of the foothill neighborhoods of Nur Alatau, Nurlytau, Yermensai and Baganashyl in the Bostandyk district faced difficulties at the start of the school year.
"On August 31, right before the start of the school year, the road surface near the school was removed. More than two weeks have passed, but the work has not been completed. The area is now practically blocked: the roads are narrow, and entrances and exits are stuck in huge traffic jams. Because of this situation, the school changed the start time of classes and cut lessons to 30 minutes. It turns out that poorly timed road work is already directly affecting our children's education," the woman described the situation.
The Almaty resident also reported that an ambulance hit a child near one of the schools. Another ambulance sent to the injured person was unable to get through in time because of the road situation.
"We are afraid that in an emergency, help simply will not be able to reach residents. We appeal to the Almaty akimat: urgently ensure safe passage, complete the repairs, organize traffic near the schools and give specific deadlines for finishing the work," the author of the post concluded.
A NUR.KZ correspondent asked the press service of the Almaty akimat for clarification. It provided information from the city's Department of Road Infrastructure Development. It said that a medium repair of the road surface is being carried out on Zhangir Khan Street, on the section from house No. 25 to house No. 54. However, it stated that the work began on September 13.
"To date, milling of the existing road surface has been completed, and preparatory work has been carried out for the subsequent laying of fine-grained asphalt concrete. During the current week, work is planned to install the new asphalt concrete surface," the department said.
It also reported that repairs to the city's main streets have now been completed. District-level streets are planned to be finished by October 31. So far, work in the districts is 70% complete.