A piece of the “Moldovei” Highway is almost ready, but it will not be open to traffic. What is the reason why almost 22 km, say the builders, “will be a museum”

In total, it is almost 22 km from Adjud to Răcăciuni, the lot from the north, towards Bacău. If the section is opened, it would offer drivers a distance of almost 250 km uninterrupted by the highway from the Capital to the middle of the Moldova region, near Bacău.

• The authorities do not foresee an opening to traffic now, but only in a few months, during which the road will remain a “museum highway”, as the “roadmen” refer to these situations: roads ready, but closed to road traffic.

The continuation of the A7 Highway from Adjud to Răcăciuni on Lot 2 Focșani – Bacău, a lot of which almost half was opened last December, is currently on the last hundred meters in terms of works. The builder is UMB. But it won't open.

“Embarrassing Apology”

The reasons cited by the authorities for not opening the traffic are “embarrassing excuses” and they do not hold up, claims for HotNews Ionuț Ciurea from the Pro Infrastructure Association, one of the most active civic organizations that monitors major infrastructure projects in the country.

He recalls two situations in the past where traffic was opened on completed highways, even if the road flow was discharged on a smaller road or a railway crossing: on the A3 at Iernut, between Tg. Mureș and Câmpia Turzii and on the A1 at Ilia, after Deva.

“When we needed to open, at Ilia or Iernut, we opened directly on the railway, people stood right at the barrier, the queues formed all the way to the highway. That is, if you want, you can give way to traffic and under safe conditions. Now it's easy to understand that you don't want to and you have to find an embarrassing excuse”, says Ciurea.

The builder is working on the final finishing touches, and the images captured from the drone show how the workers are focused only on a few points where there is still work to be completed.

Highway almost ready, but will not be open to traffic

However, although there is the Răcăciuni road interchange at the end of the section of highway that is now being completed, it will not be open to traffic now. It will remain closed until the builder completes the continuation from Răcăciuni to Bacău (about 21.5 km).

CNAIR representatives explained to HotNews the reason for delaying the opening: the Răcăciuni road junction provides for the unloading of traffic on a narrow county road that is intersected by a railway in the area, and queues will frequently form at the barriers.

When will traffic be opened?

“The section up to Răcăciuni will not be opened now because traffic is blocked on that county road,” said CNAIR spokesperson, Alin Șerbănescu.

He says that the opening of traffic will only take place with the next batch, the approximately 21 km from Răcăciuni to Bacău (Bacău belt put into traffic from 2020).

“August is the deadline for completion and package traffic will open,” said Șerbănescu.

“They don't want to open because it just confuses the entrepreneur”

Ionuț Ciurea from Asociația Pro Infrastructura says that the real reason for delaying the opening of traffic on a part of the completed highway is to allow the builder from Bacău UMB to work without delays on the rest of the A7 highway that must be completed up to Pașcani by August in order not to lose the non-refundable funds from the PNRR.

Ciurea also recalls the fact that the official deadlines for the highway sections in question were the end of last year.

“They don't want to open because they are simply confusing the contractor. We will film and enjoy the new museum highway, unfortunately. I also said that it could open from April if they forced. Now in May the section of the highway could already be opened. These are invented reasons,” claims the representative of Pro Infrastructure.

All A7 to Pașcani: race against time to be ready in 2026

At the end of 2025, the network of highways and express roads in operation in Romania reached 1,416.3 kilometers, after during the last year almost 146.5 km were put into use, the vast majority on the A7.

The year 2026 should theoretically mean the putting into circulation of all the remaining sections from Adjud to Pașcani. And that's because all the sections are caught on financing through PNRR, the European post-pandemic economic recovery plan, a program whose deadline is the end of August this year.

Thus, after the inaugurations at the end of 2025 which made the A7 to Moldova mean almost 200 kilometers of uninterrupted highway, and allow drivers to drive on the Bucharest – Adjud route on about 250 kilometers of high-speed road without any potholes along the way, the year 2026 will come with the continuation of the A7 to the North.

The sections from Adjud to Săbăoani, north of Roman, are caught on non-refundable financing, while the last piece, from Săbăoani to Pașcani, is financed by PNRR repayable loans and should be ready in autumn or winter.

Which batches of A7 must be completed in 2026

• A7 Focșani – Bacău, Lot 2 complete (Adjud – Răcăciuni) – 22 km
• A7 Focșani – Bacău, Lot 3 – Răcăciuni – Bacău: 21.5 km
• A7 Bacău – Pașcani, Lot 1 (Bacău – Trifești) – 30.3 km
• A7 Bacău – Pașcani, Lot 2 (Triifești – Săbăoani) – 19 km
• A7 Bacău – Pașcani, Lot 3 (Săbăoani – Pașcani) – 28 km

Total: 120 km

All sections are executed by the Romanian builder UMB. All sections had initial completion dates of late 2025.

SAFE financing for A7 to Ukraine

The A7 highway from Pașcani to Suceava and further to Siret (including a 15 km section in Ukraine), as well as the A8 highway from Moțca (DN2) to Ungheni at the Prut Bridge (including a 5 km section in the Republic of Moldova) are financed through the SAFE military endowment program.

Romania has been allocated loans of 16.6 billion euros through SAFE, repayable only from 2035 at a very low interest rate. For the development of critical civil and military infrastructure – the two highways – Romania has allocated 4.2 billion euros.