The first motorway tunnel drilled in Romania, close to opening. How section 4 of A1 Sibiu – Pitesti looks now

A section of the A1 Sibiu – Pitesti highway will be opened to road traffic this year, ahead of the contract deadline. Currently, only 10 percent separate the Curtea de Argeș – Tigveni section from the opening of traffic, a moment that will also mark the inauguration of the first drilled highway tunnel in Romania.

Section 4 of the A1 Sibiu – Pitesti runs between the towns of Curtea de Argeș and Tigveni and is approximately 9.8 km long. Along the route, the highway will undercut the Momaia hill through a tunnel with the same name, almost 1.35 km long.

“Only 10 percent separates us from the opening of traffic on one more section of the Sibiu-Pitesti A1 highway”, announced a few days ago the director of the Road Company, Cristian Pistol.

At that time, the Austrian builder PORR was mobilized with 450 workers and 130 machines.

A recent video taken with the drone and published on the Răducu P Drum YouTube channel shows the exact state of the work today.

From the images it can be seen how the builder is still working on a large part of the embankments, but also on the part of structures, bridges and passages, but the biggest effort still remains the Momaia tunnel.

“If the current pace of work is maintained, this year it will be possible to open traffic on this section approximately 6 months earlier than the contractual deadline of February 2027. It will thus be possible to travel on almost 54 km of the 122 km of the Sibiu-Pitesti highway”, announced the director of the Road Company.

The value of the contract with the Austrian company PORR is 1.678 billion lei, excluding VAT, and the source of financing is provided by the Transport Program 2021-2027.

Highway A1 Sibiu – Pitesti – Section 4: Tigveni – Curtea de Argeș

• Length: 9.86 km
• MANUFACTURER: Porr Construct (Austria)
• Value: 1,678,873,121.77 Lei without VAT.
• Contracted: November 2021
• Work started: March 2022
• Contract term: 16 months design + 44 months execution (February 2027)

As part of the contract, several works of art with a high complexity are made, as follows:

• 12 bridges, passages and/or viaducts, with an average length of 230 m, of which the longest is the Viaduct at km. 84+341, in length of 630 m.
• A tunnel 1,350 m long, in the Momâia hill crossing area, Argeș county.

The stage of works on each section of the A1 Sibiu – Pitesti highway

The Sibiu – Pitesti highway would have a length of over 122 kilometers, divided into 5 sections, and will connect Central and Western Romania with the European highway network, being an important part of the 4th Pan-European Corridor.

• On the A1 Sibiu – Pitesti, traffic opened in December 2022 on Section 1 (13.17km from Sibiu to Boita – builder Porr).
• On Section 2 Cornetu – Boita (31.3 km)the most difficult section that passes through the Olt Valley and involves the construction of seven tunnels, CNAIR signed an 860 million euro contract with a Turkish association in February 2022. At the end of 2024, a series of works began on a viaduct at the Boita end, and in the spring of 2025, the first mountain works on the route began. On October 8, 2025, work began on the first tunnel, the one from Robești, and in April 2026, drilling began on the first tunnel from Boita.
• On Section 3 Tigveni – Cornetu (37.4 km), an association of builders from Italy and Romania signed in August 2022 the contract for the most expensive highway tender ever launched in Romania at that time. On this section, the builder was in the design period and the works preceding the start of the construction site. The works started at the beginning of 2025, and for the Poiana tunnel, the longest on the entire highway, the Italians are preparing a TBM machine for drilling, an operation that should start in May.
• On Section 4 Curtea de Argeș – Tigveni the Austrians from PORR started in the fall of 2023 and currently have completely drilled the two galleries of the Momaia tunnel. Completion of the section is scheduled for 2026, with a good chance of completion in the summer.
• In December 2024, traffic opened on Section 5 Pitesti – Curtea de Argeș about 15 km from Bascov (Pitesti) at the Merișani road junction. The builder WeBuild (formerly Astaldi) then continued to work on the rest of the section and opened traffic on the remaining approximately 15 km to Curtea de Argeș in June 2025.