REPUBLISHED

Traffic restricted in the former Blloku as work begins to make it a pedestrian zone

Erblin Vukaj · Originally published: 26 September 2025

The junctions along one of the main streets in the former Blloku district were closed on Friday to make way for Tirana Municipality’s rehabilitation project, which envisages turning it into a restricted-traffic zone.¹

“Vaso Pasha” Street was closed in the morning from its junction with “Brigada e VIII” Street to the junction with “Ismail Qemali” Street. Side streets, such as “Pjetër Bogdani”, were closed as well.

Work began without clear public notice and is expected to last at least 6 months. Residents and local businesses faced heavy traffic and had to move their cars, some of which had been left with leaflets announcing the establishment of the construction site.

The area contains dozens of offices, bars and cafés, homes and Kindergarten No. 31, all of which depend on daily access along this road.

What does the project envisage?

The work is being carried out by Ndregjoni shpk and Rafin Company, winners of the public tender opened in June.

The contract was awarded for around 2 million euros in a competition with 18 bids, of which 11 were disqualified for missing documentation, failure to meet the criteria or “abnormally low” bids. Competitors did not appeal the process, although the disqualification of most of them raises questions.

The project pledges to put pedestrians first and therefore envisages removing parking lanes, widening pavements and narrowing the roads, which will be surfaced with red or grey resin-coated asphalt.

It takes elements used in the rehabilitation of “Zogu I” Boulevard and “Skanderbeg” Square and reuses them to continue the same approach to circulation, with spaces dedicated to pedestrians.

The former Blloku: an area of extreme urban densification

The former Blloku area has experienced a new wave of construction, with towers of 8 to 14 storeys. As Citizens.al has previously documented in its Vertical Tirana series, the area is losing its public spaces and becoming a “vertical dormitory”.

The latest interventions make getting around even more difficult, especially for existing residents and businesses.

Despite this, the authorities are pursuing a plan to transform it into a square with restricted traffic and wider pavements.

The idea was promoted by Prime Minister Edi Rama himself in various television appearances before it was unveiled in February 2025 at an event held at the former villa of dictator Enver Hoxha.

While tower construction is growing at a rapid pace, road and pavement projects remain isolated and unclear.

There is no integrated plan for traffic, public transport or residents’ access. Residents are rarely informed or involved in decisions about urban changes that affect them directly.

Development in the former Blloku is therefore moving in two directions: intensive construction and isolated “improvements” that fail to respond to the new density.

1. Update! Following complaints from entrepreneurs, financial authorities and local residents, the construction site was withdrawn on Saturday, fully reopening traffic. In a video comment on Facebook, MP Erion Braçe described the road closures as “hasty” and “unannounced”. He said he had been in contact with Tirana Municipality to find a method or schedule of works with less impact on residents, adding that the project was being revised for this purpose. ↩︎

* This article was reviewed and corrected on 8 October 2026.