12 months on:
What has been done to restore Tbilisi after June 13 flood?

Today marks exactly one year since Georgia’s capital Tbilisi began its recover after being swamped by a deadly flash flood.

• TBILISI FLOOD: A CITY THAT CHANGED OVERNIGHT

In the past 12 months the Georgian Government, foreign governments, private companies and ordinary citizens have united to help Tbilisi rise up from disaster and return to its former glory.

In a special announcement today Tbilisi City Hall said 40 million GEL had spent from the city’s budget to restore infrastructure destroyed in the flood.

Tbilisi's New Highway (Chabua Amirejibi Highway) has been fully reconstructed. Photo by Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge 

Mayor Davit Narmania summed up the work carried out since the natural disaster and said as of today, all the reconstruction work had been completed.

Here are some of the things that have been done over the past 12 months:

• The New Highway (Chabua Amirejibi Highway), connecting Vake and Saburtalo districts of Tbilisi, has been fully reconstructed after being washed away;
• A brand new bridge has been built over Vere River;
• Six tunnels have been renovated for the Vere River to pass through;
• A new protection wall has been built in the Vere ravine;
• A new lighting system has been set up along the Vere ravine;
• The asphalt cover has been renewed at Heroes Square;
• Mtkvari River railing has been restored in the sections that were hit by the food;
• Svanidze St road has been fully renewed;
• A drainage system has been installed on Svanidzen St;
• The lower part of Tbilisi Zoo has been cleaned up.

Tbilisi City Hall said one million GEL had been spent on intensive clean-up works at the flood-hit areas. This clean-up action started immediately after the natural disaster.

Mayor Narmania explained that there were seven steel tunnels in the Vere ravine, all of which were damaged in the flood.

"Six of them were possible to be repaired and we did repair them but the level of damage to the seventh tunnel near Mziuri Park was so huge it couldn’t be repaired so we built a brand new bridge there.”

A tunnel for the Vere River. Photo by Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge

Eight million GEL was spent on the new bridge, which Namrnaia said was "very stable and secure”.

Narmania aalso talked about future projects that would be implemented in Georgia’s capital. He said City Hall had a plan in place to develop Mziuri Park and its surroundings.

"This plan will turn Mizuri into a modern, very green and beautiful park,” the Mayor said.

Another project Tbilisi City Hall was working on was formation of the Vere riverbed.

"This project will on one hand prevent the water from leaving its bed in case of flooding and on the other hand, will protect the nearby territories,” Narmania said.