INTERVIEW “The year 2026 will be the year of designing a historic highway for Romania” / A key contract is to be awarded
In terms of infrastructure, Romania has many arrears, which have become “myths of impotence”. But among the highways, one is, says Gabriel Budescu, director of the Road Investment Company, expected from an economic and symbolic point of view. It is about the “Unirii” highway A8, which connects Transylvania with Moldova.
The A8 motorway is planned to be around 300 kilometers in total and has been divided into 13 sections, in various stages of implementation and managed by two different state companies. Its complete route will be Târgu Mureș – Iași – Ungheni (R. Moldova).
Four already contracted sections are managed by the Road Infrastructure Administration Company (CNAIR), and the rest are managed by the recently established Road Investment Company (CNIR).
The highway that crosses the mountains from Transylvania to Moldova: “The year 2026 will be the year of designing the works”
So far CNIR has managed to auction all its sections and contract all the mountain lots. A week ago, CNIR also gave the start order on the most difficult of the lots that will cross the Eastern Carpathians, a section for which the Romanian state will pay the most expensive price per kilometer – 38 million euros.
The works, initially the design ones, will start in March 2026.
“We only gave it from the beginning of the year because it's already late now. It's before the holidays, we're entering the winter period, the builder didn't really have anything else to do. They have to start with the geotechnical studies there, something that can't be done in the cold, in the frost. And then we preferred to give the builder a longer term to mobilize, to think of a strategy to start the design work immediately”, explains, in an interview for HotNews, Gabriel Budescu, the director general of the CNIR.
Budescu says that 2026 “will be the year of designing the mountain A8”, the year in which the Union highway that crosses the Carpathians and joins Transylvania with Moldova will be technically designed – from dozens of tunnels and viaducts, hundreds of bridges, passages, retaining walls and slope reinforcements.
“And for the next mountain lots that we are contracting now, we will give the start order for next spring. Now we have practically closed the tenders on the mountain area, we can focus on the works and there will be a clear projection when and how the A8 can be ready on the mountain area”, says Budescu.
The atypical section that intersects with the A7 “Moldovei” Highway
Further, however, over the Carpathians in Moldova, the A8 highway to Iași and the Republic of Moldova was also put up for auction piece by piece, but some procedures hit roadblocks.
One of the sections is necessary to connect the A8 with the A7 “Moldovei” Motorway which crosses the region from North to South and which in 2026 could end up being opened up to Pașcani.
“On the section from Târgu Neamț to Târgu Frumos we declared a winner (no. Danlin XXL). Unfortunately, an appeal was filed (no. by UMB),” says Budescu.
The Târgu Neamț – Târgu Frumos section is an atypical one – it is 27 kilometers long, but it is “interrupted” in the middle by the construction site of a (high-speed) whirlwind junction between the A8 and the “Moldovei” A7 highway, currently being built by UMB.
Basically, the A8 section in question starts from Moțca and the intersection with DN2 and continues for about 5.5 km. Then follows the area of the vortex node for about 10 km near Pașcani, and then the A8 section resumes up to Tg. Beautiful for the remaining 21.5 km.
“In this lot, we had additional points awarded to the one who will connect the mountain area and the vortex from the A7 the fastest. That is, basically, to have the connection from Moțca de Pașcani as quickly as possible, basically, so that we can also value that vortex and be able to circulate and create the corridor effect”, explains the CNIR director.
A key contract is to be awarded: a road to bypass the congestion at the Iloaiei Bridge
Further on the A8 towards Iasi, the sector from Târgu Frumos to Letcani, west of Iasi, is in the tender and will be assigned to a winner soon, says the head of CNIR. In Lețcani there is also included in the contract a road of almost 5 km to Iași.
“I think that in about two or three weeks we will award the winner here as well. I provided an additional score for the Podul Iloaiei area, because there is a big problem there, there is a big traffic jam, and I identified a 4.5 km piece that can work as a detour. We gave an additional score to the contractor who will prioritize that piece of highway and put it into operation, that would be priority zero, so to speak,” explains Budescu.
He reminds that next year the A7 Highway should also be ready up to Pașcani, so the traffic towards Iași would experience new increases in values that will put pressure on the problematic area from Podu Iloaiei, on DN28.
“It will become a problem because our design will also finish around the same year as expected. And the A7 will be ready, which will bring traffic to Iași and will also overlap with construction site traffic. We have also foreseen the shorter design and the builders have assumed this thing. I say that the design for this piece could be ready between a month and a few months. Thus, the year 2027 is feasible to put into circulation that portion that bypass the Iloaiei Bridge”, says Budescu.
The most expensive contract in Romania for bypassing Iași: 55 million euros per kilometer
Further on, from Lecțani, follows probably the most expensive highway in Romania so far – a section of only 18 km, but which at the auction has an estimated value of 5.29 billion lei, i.e. over 1 billion euros. Calculated broken down, it means a cost of 55 million euros per kilometer.
“Offers have been submitted for this lot, we have 12 offers, it's a very big competition,” says Budescu.
He explains the very high value of the section in terms of the works required for the highway to cross the hilly relief in the northwest of Iași.
The section, although it is only 17.7 km long, will have no less than 6 tunnels and 18 bridges along it, as well as two road junctions.
“Here we will also have tunnels with three lanes, with a lane for heavy vehicles, which leads to higher costs. They will be the widest highway tunnels in Romania. The costs for a highway now are quite high, prices have been increasing in recent years. It remains to be seen how much the contract will be awarded in the end. On section 1, for example, the contract was awarded at almost 80% of the auction value”, the CNIR director explains to the public HotNews.
Two auctions will be canceled and restarted from scratch
Further, from the northern area of the Municipality of Iași to the border with the Republic of Moldova, to the future bridge over the Prut from Ungheni, there are two more lots.
Section 4 is 12.7 km from DN24 to the Golăiesti junction, and Section 5 is 2.77 km and reaches the future Ungheni bridge. For the two lots, CNIR launched tenders, but the procedures were contested.
Now the head of the CNIR announces that the two tenders will be canceled and will be restarted, including a series of requirements to allow the sections to be included in the SAFE financing.
“The last sections are the ones that were disputed. We won on Section 3, we lost on sections 4 and 5. We are currently preparing to restart the auctions from scratch,” says Budescu.
“Various discussions have also arisen for the SAFE financing part, conditions that must be met and we are preparing to renew the tenders. The projects must also respect a so-called cross-border effect, somehow the investment must also have an effect beyond the border. And we had meetings in Ungheni with those from the Republic of Moldova. Part of the investment must also enter the border area. We are analyzing several options at the moment, but I cannot give you details yet,” says Budescu.
Status of all sections on the A8 “Unirii” Motorway
The A8 motorway is planned to be around 300 kilometers in total and has been divided into 13 sections, in various stages of implementation and managed by two different state companies.
- Tg. Mureș – Miercurea Nirajului (1A) – 22 km, under construction – Contracted with Nurol, 2.4 billion lei (managed by CNAIR)
- Miercurea Nirajului – Sărățeni (1B) – 23.4 km, under design – Contracted with Ozaltin, 2.98 billion lei (managed by CNAIR)
- Sărățeni – Joseni (1C) – 32.4 km – Contracted with UMB, 4.94 billion lei (managed by CNIR)
- Joseni – Ditrău (1D) – 14.4 km – Contracted with Danlin XXL (Leader) – Groma Hold-Intertranscom Impex, 0.82 billion lei (managed by CNIR)
- Ditrău – Grințieș (2A) – 38 km, under design – Contracted with UMB, 6.14 billion lei (managed by CNIR)
- Grințieș – Pipirig (2B) – 31.5 km, start order March 2026 – Contracted with UMB, 5.97 billion lei (managed by CNIR)
- Pipirig – Leghin (2C) – 19.3 km, under design – Contracted with UMB, 2.69 billion lei (managed by CNAIR)
- Leghin – Tg. Neamț (Moțca/DN2) – 29.91 km, under construction – Contracted with UMB, 1.56 billion lei (managed by CNAIR)
- Moțca – Tg. Trumos (Tronson 1) – 27 km – Assigned to Danlin XXL (Leader) – Groma Hold-Intertranscom Impex, 4.76 billion lei (managed by CNIR)
- Tg Frumos – Lețcani (Tronson 2) – 28.6 km – In the auction, 6 bids submitted, estimated value at 6.5 billion lei (managed by CNIR)
- Lețcani – Iași Nord (DN24) (Tronson 3) – 17.7 km – In the auction, 12 bids submitted, estimated value at 6.24 billion lei (managed by CNIR)
- Iași Nord (DN24) – Golăiesti (Tronson 4) – 12.7 km – The auction will be resumed, estimated value at 4.86 billion lei (managed by CNIR)
- Golăiesti – Ungheni (Pod over the Prut) (Tronson 5) – 2.77 km – The tender will be resumed, estimated value at 0.32 billion lei (managed by CNIR)
“Unirii” A8 highway, Photo: Hotnews
