The construction of a new expressway in Romania begins. When will the road that costs almost 12 million euros per kilometer be ready – VIDEO
Express road in Romania / Source: CNAIR
The order was given to start the works on the new express road that will connect the A7 “Moldovei” Highway to the bridge over the Danube in Brăila. The nearly 900 million euro contract was signed with an association led by the Romanian builder UMB and covers the entire project, the longest high-speed road project made in one piece.
On Friday, the National Road Investment Company (CNIR) gave the order to start work for December 2 in the contract for the construction of the Focșani-Brăila Expressway by the SA&PE Construct – Spedition UMB – Tehnostrade – Arcada Company. The signed contract has a value of 4.29 billion lei (without VAT), i.e. almost 900 million euros.
“Today, we issued the Start Order for the Focșani-Brăila Expressway contract. After the Contractor provided the guarantee for the contracts signed on October 29, we are waiting for the Work Schedule, because, from the design stage, we want to ensure the completion of the service spaces six months before the reception of the works and the opening of traffic. It is an important aspect and I really want the parking lots to be functional at the inauguration. Also for this contract, the contractor, a consortium with solid experience, will be able to allow traffic on functional sections independently”, said the general director of CNIR, Gabriel Budescu.
The Focșani – Brăila expressway will be 73.5 km long and will be built in one batch – the longest stretch of high-speed road built through a single contract in Romania.
The duration of the contract is 6 months for design and 36 months for execution. In other words, if the deadlines are met, the new high-speed road will be ready in the summer of 2029, but the builder will be able to open traffic gradually, on functional sections, as they complete the work.
A peculiarity: The entire project is contracted from the start to a single builder
The Focșani-Brăila Express Road will ensure the connection between the Moldovei Ploiesti-Pașcani Highway (A7), the bridge over the Danube from Brăila, the Brăila-Galați Express Road (DEx 6), Tulcea and Constanța.
The project has a peculiarity with which it stood out since the launch of the tender: although the road is quite long, it was put out to the design and execution tender in a single lot, a single piece to be made by the same builder. This, unlike the highway tenders so far in Romania, which involved breaking the projects into smaller sections, usually with a maximum length of about 30 kilometers, depending on the complexity, explained Gabriel Budescu, the head of CNIR, in a HotNews.ro interview in 2024.
“We decided to auction it from a single section of 73 kilometers because it is in a plain area. The filling land is quite problematic to find there. There will be quite large borrowing mouths and we risked at some point, if there were two or three builders, that they cannibalize each other or offer us the same material resource at the auction, after which we find that the neighbor took it and so on. We have had such cases before.” said the CNIR director.
INTERACTIVE MAP Why the first high-speed road that will connect the Brăila Bridge will cost 14 million euros per kilometer. The route in detail and what sets it apart from other projects
Focșani – Brăila Express Road – specifications
- Contract value: 4.29 billion lei
- Contract signed: Association SA&PE Construct – Spedition UMB – Tehnostrade – Arcada Company
- Length of express way: 73.5 km
- A connecting road with DN 23 in a length of approx. 2.2 km (2 traffic lanes of 3.5 m each and approaches of 1 m) to ensure the connection of the express road with DN2.
- 6 road junctions: Focșani (A7), Milcovul (DN23A), Maicanesti (DN23), Corbu (DN23), Silistea (DJ221C), Braila (DX Buzau-Braila)) of which 2 high-speed road junctions
- designed at a speed of 80 km/h, one with the A7 Motorway and one with the Buzău – Brăila Expressway
- Artwork: 57 (bridges, passages, viaducts) with lengths between 32-627m + forest curtains positioned in the direction of the dominant winds
- features: Short-Term Parking (left + right) – km 17+600, Service spaces type S1 (left + right) – km 40+350, Maintenance and Coordination Center (CIC), Short-Term Parking (left + right) -km 54+300,
- Starting order: December 2, 2025
- Design period: 6 months (4 months PAC and 2 months PTE)
- Execution period: 36 months
- Warranty period: 5 years (60 months)
