The museum highway in western Romania, closed to traffic for nine years. It will be inaugurated at the same time as the large tunnels on the A1
For nine years, a piece of over four kilometers of highway in western Romania has remained closed to traffic, although the work on this segment has been completed. The section in the Margina area will be opened with the “highway with tunnels”.
Margina motorway interchange. Photo: Daniel Guță. TRUTH
Vegetation covered the edges of the “museum highway” in western Romania, and many sound-absorbing panels, installed almost a decade ago, have degraded, along with other installations and utilities on the 4.5 kilometers of highway built in 2017 at Margina, in Timiș.
The “Museum Highway”, built almost a decade ago, was included in Lot 2 of the Lugoj – Deva Highway, 28.5 kilometers long, between the towns of Coșevița and Traian Vuia. The works started in 2013, and in March 2017 a 15 kilometer segment between Traian Vuia and Margina was inaugurated.
In order to be able to use this sector, the Margina node was built, which connects the highway with DN 68A Deva – Lugoj. After the Margina junction, the highway continues for another four kilometers, on the segment that cannot be used. Until recently, it stopped in the field, under a half-built passage, at the exit from Margina towards Holdea.
From the spring of 2024, when work was resumed on the 13 kilometers left unfinished in Lot 2 of the Lugoj – Deva Highway, the “museum highway” was included in the project and will require additional remedial work, the restoration of some degraded areas and its integration into the new Margina – Holdea section, before the opening of traffic.
Also, the Margina Maintenance and Coordination Center, only partially built, will have to be completed. Currently, the end of the “museum highway” is used by builders for site development, and construction materials are stored on a portion of it.
Intensive work on the section with tunnels
The machinery has also returned to this section of the highway, but the largest mobilization of forces is on the Margina – Holdea segment, over nine kilometers long, in its continuation, where the two tunnels with galleries totaling over 4.5 kilometers are under construction.
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Closed highway, Margina area Photo Daniel Guță, THE TRUTH (4) jpg
“The Margina – Holdea section of the Lugoj-Deva A1 highway: on the 9.13 km of the construction site, the physical state is 56 percent. Tunnel 1: – excavations and shotcrete work in both galleries have been completed (the gallery on track 2 is 415 m long and the gallery on track 1 is 367.5 m long), – the foundations of the turned vault have been completed in both galleries, – in the gallery on track 2, waterproofing has already been installed for a length of 340 m, and in the gallery on track 1, waterproofing has been installed for a length of 324 m. Tunnel 2: – in the gallery on track 2 (1985 m in length), 930 m have been excavated. – in the gallery on track 1 (in total length of 1825 m) 1,144 m”recently informed Cristian Pistol, director of the National Road Infrastructure Administration Company.
He also stated that in order to increase the pace of excavation work at Tunnel 2, the builders will open a new access to the gallery on the Sibiu-Nădlac direction (route 1) and will work from 8 points. Also, the platform on which the factory of beams that will be mounted on bridges and viaducts will be mounted has been completed.
The work on the missing segment of the Lugoj – Deva Highway is due to be completed in the first quarter of 2027, but the authorities have so far been optimistic about its inauguration, estimating its completion in 2026.
