Tag: highway

  • Money for the modernization of transport infrastructure

    Money for the modernization of transport infrastructure

    Over 12 billion lei, about 2.4 billion Euros, were allocated by the Romanian Government for the rehabilitation of the country’s transport infrastructure. The executive met on Thursday to approve, among other things, two major investments in the railway and road sectors. The first project is that of rehabilitating the railway line that connects Focşani, the Vrancea county seat, located in the southeast of the country, to Roman, a city in Neamţ county, located in the northeast. The route, almost 150 kilometers long, is part of the Pan-European Corridor 9, which is 3,400 km long and connects the capital of Finland, Helsinki, located on the Baltic Sea, with the Greek city of Alexandroupoli, a port on the Aegean Sea in southern Europe.

     

    The project, included in Romania’s General Transport Master Plan, received a little over 11 billion lei (about 2.2 billion Euros). The government has shown that the money comes from external non-reimbursable funds, through the Transport Program 2021-2027 and the Connecting Europe Facility, from the state budget, from the own revenues of the National Railway Company, as well as from other legally established sources. The works, that will last 36 months, aim to increase safety in the area where the railway lines intersect with the road network, to significantly improve transport conditions, to build passages and modernize level crossings, objectives which, according to the authorities, have an important role in the sustainable development of the localities on the route by reducing polluting emissions, travel times, as well as by increasing the number of passengers and the amounts of transported goods.

     

    The second project that received funding from the Bucharest administration aims to rehabilitate a sector between kilometers 44 and 86 of the A1 Bucharest-Pitesti Highway, the busiest in the country. The works will aim to rehabilitate the road surface and the bridges on the 42 kilometers of the segment and, according to the Ministry of Transport, this will lead to an increase in the degree of traffic safety, to a reduction in travel times, a reduction in the cost for preventing environmental pollution and an increase in the duration of operation. For achieving this project, the Government allocated 1.1 billion lei (approximately 221 million Euros) from the state budget, and the duration of works is 48 months.

     

    Romania has an outdated transport infrastructure that has turned into a veritable bottomless coin sack in recent decades. Of the more than 22,000 kilometers of railway that cross the country, just a little over 8,500 are electrified. As to roads, Romania has almost 90,000 kilometers of public roads, but less than half are modernized. As far as highways are concerned, last year Romania exceeded 1,000 kilometers, below Hungary and Croatia, above Bulgaria, Serbia and Slovenia, but Romania’s surface area and population are much higher than those of the above-mentioned states. (LS)

  • The highway network gets extended

    The highway network gets extended

    For almost two decades, in every election campaign, the parties with governmental ambitions promise, without exception, that, when they finish their mandate, Romania will have a network of highways like the West. And at the end of the mandate, nothing actually happened in that sense, but their promises resume. Romania, the press notes, ends another year without much success in terms of transport infrastructure. On Thursday, in the center of the country, 13 kilometers of the A1 Highway, part of the pan-European Corridor IV, were inaugurated, not without some fanfare. They add to the already existing 40 kilometers of the Craiova-Pitesti Expressway (south), inaugurated in the summer of this year. They are sections of the Olt Valley highway, considered the most important road infrastructure project and, at the same time, the first high-speed highway that will cross the Carpathians, connecting Muntenia (south) to Transylvania (center). Experts say, however, that only in 2028 could the entire Olt Valley highway be opened. This will include 70 kilometers in a mountain area and works will start next year.



    If the optimistic scenario is respected, in six years’ time traffic will be possible on fast roads from Constanta (south-east), Romania’s largest Black Sea port, to the border with Hungary, in the west. However, about 150 kilometers are missing to have a complete highway from one end of the country to the other, i.e. three segments on the Bucharest Ring Road, four segments between Pitesti and Sibiu (center) and one more, smaller segment, but with tunnels requiring laborious work, between Lugoj and Deva (center-west). The decision-makers from the Transport Ministry claim that a very important step has been taken for the future network leading to the north-east of the country. The execution contracts for the Focşani-Bacău section, 96 kilometers on the Moldova Highway, were signed, and the builder is the most powerful civil contractor in Romania, a company from the very Bacău county, which Minister Sorin Grindeanu praises a lot.



    As for the Highway known as the Union Highway, which will go from the center of the country, from Târgu Mures, to Iasi, in the east, and then to Ungheni, on the border with the Republic of Moldova, all the specialists say that a realistic deadline for completion is the year 2030. The road measures about 300 kilometers in length and will cut through the mountains between Transylvania and Moldavia. Finally, another major connection between the Romanian historical provinces, the bridge over the Danube from Brăila (south-east), located on the border between Dobrogea, Muntenia and Moldavia, will be inaugurated only next spring. Minister Grindeanu admits that the works had to be completed on December 20 at the latest, as the Italian contractor had promised, but the connecting roads are only half ready, and the bridge has not even been asphalted. (LS)

  • The Sibiu-Bucharest highway, one step forward

    The Sibiu-Bucharest highway, one step forward

    With a total length of almost 580 km, the A1 Highway starts in Bucharest and is designed to ensure the exit towards the border with Hungary at Nădlac, passing through Pitești, Sibiu, Deva, Timișoara and Arad. If we look at the extended map we see that, in order to finalize the European Corridor from Vama Nădlac 2 customs point to the port of Constanța on the Black Sea, 10 km of highway are needed, with tunnels between Lugoj and Deva, as well as the 120 km-long section of the highway on the Olt Valley. Six companies have submitted bids for the contract for the missing section in Timiş county (west), although the signing of the contract cannot be guaranteed until the end of the year. For the Sibiu – Piteşti highway section, as of August 1, all five segments already have contracts signed.



    On two of these segments, the ones at the ends of the highway, works have already started. And according to the official timetable of signed contracts, the Sibiu – Piteşti highway should be ready in six years. Romania will have the first highway that will cross the Carpathians, says the Transport Minister, Sorin Grindeanu, who participated in the signing of the contract for the design and construction of section 3 of the Sibiu – Piteşti highway, of approximately 37 km. It is a contract of 5.3 billion lei (about 1 billion Euros), with a duration of 12 months for the design phase and almost four years for the construction proper. It is the most difficult of the five sections. The contractor must build 95 bridges and passageways, a tunnel with two independent galleries, with a length of 1.7 km /gallery, two road junctions and a wildlife bridge.



    The most advanced lot of the entire highway is Sibiu – Boiţa, which has very high chances for opening by the time of the holidays, says Minister Grindeanu: “All five sections of the Sibiu-Piteşti highway have designated contractors. One of them, section 1, from Sibiu to Boiţa, is expected to be opened for traffic at the end of this year. Eventually, with a very long delay, we have these contracts signed, and those who won these tenders are expected to observe the terms of the contract. As I said earlier, after tens of years, we will eventually have the first highway that will cross the Carpathians.”



    It remains to be seen to what extent the deadlines will be met, given that the constructor of segment 3 is also working on the 30 km plain section between Piteşti and Curtea de Argeş, a much easier but delayed segment.



    Dragoş Burlan, the contractors representative, explains the delays: “On the 32 km segment there are about 146 bridges, which means that the embankment has been divided every 30 to 50 to 100 m. In order to be able to enter the embankment part, we focused first on these bridges before. We have started work on the embankments for about 5 weeks.”



    The Transport Minister also announced that this month two construction sites are opening on the A7 Moldavia Highway, Ploieşti-Pașcani, financed under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan – PNRR. (LS)

  • Large-scale construction works and their impact on Romania’s still unspoiled traditional culture

    Large-scale construction works and their impact on Romania’s still unspoiled traditional culture

    A lot has been built in Romania in the more than 30
    years that have passed since the outbreak of the anti-communist Revolution. However,
    and more often than not, construction works were carried chaotically, at once being
    blatantly misplaced, as tall apartment blocks were built in private residence
    districts, new constructions cropped up nearby listed, historical buildings, or
    shapes and colours, randomly chosen, simply took hold of the architecture of an
    area. The disorder caused by all that is simply exhausting. Whether we speak
    about the urban areas or the rural regions, the architectural chaos has mainly been
    generated by the lack of a clear-cut system of standards in the construction
    sector. Not to mentioned the fact that the authorities in right turned a blind
    eye on the serious abnormalities perpetrated on the ground.


    That being said, we invite you to meet the initiators of
    the project themed Upstream Topolog river, Cristina and Paul Budan. For one
    year running, the project’s stated aim was to undertake a study period, prior
    to preservation, of the vernacular architecture of the southern part of Arges
    County’s Topolog river’s upstream segment.


    Why? Because a highway is soon to cross the region. Notwithstanding,
    the Budan family would like that, at least for that particular segment, the good
    points of the technical progress should not have a negative impact on the
    specificity of the area. And, if that may not also be possible, at least the locals’
    centuries-old way of life should be registered for posterity.


    Cristina Budan is a teaching assistant with the
    Faculty of Architecture as part of the Bucharest-based Ion Mincu University.
    She has been explaining what the Upstream Topolog River project actually meant:


    ʺThe project sought to map the entire upper
    part of the Topolog river valley, in a bid to see what could be preserved of
    that traditional architecture and attempt to carry a documentation of the valley,
    to keep as much info as possible on that particular type of architecture, given
    that a highway segment will cross the area. The Cornetu-Tigveni segment will
    cut through the valley, and everything will change, most likely, as soon as
    that happens. As we speak, the valley is rather quiet, as there is no major roadway
    to cross it so it has been preserved in a very good condition, traditional architecture
    was easy to preserve in the area as well. Infrastructure changes will surely alter
    the structure of the villages, the development of the region, therefore it will
    also have its impact on the built heritage.


    What experiences, what revelations did the volunteers
    have, who worked in large numbers for the mapping of the upper part of Topolog
    River Valley?

    Cristina Budan once again.


    ʺAs I’ve said before, there
    is no major road to cross the valley, to cut it through, so it has its own
    peace and quiet, it does have its autonomy. What’s most interesting is that it functions
    as a whole, it is closely-knit and living in that valley is something beautiful,
    it is intertwined, since the locals there are owners of the house, the pasture,
    the meadow land and through their daily activities, they somehow keep the place
    together. That’s what we first liked very much about it! Then there are lots of
    hypostases of the valley. The roads are spectacular, especially when you start losing
    yourself in the lateral hills, the experience is very beautiful, that of
    crossing the valley and how you get to reach those houses. And we found very
    beautiful houses, they were hard to include into categories, we even had our difficulties
    trying to trace several clear-cut typologies, since they are so varied in terms
    of expression, so that was really difficult. We ran into very beautiful, porch houses,
    of that classic typology we all associate with traditional architecture, but we
    also ran into walled houses with very elaborate plastering, with very refined, complex
    roofs…well, it’s all about a very rich expression we don’t seem to pay heed to,
    unfortunately. It is very important for us to keep a database of all we have
    now and the way the valley functions, together with those houses, which are
    expressions of the place, after all. And we were also interested in creating a
    database with the various expressions of those houses, what shapes those houses
    can take, so that we can see howe much variety is, in fact, in the local
    architecture.


    For Paul
    Budan, The Upstream Topolog river project has, apart from its practical importance, a psychological importance as well. A Bucharest city-dweller as he may be,
    Paul Budan has its family roots in that valley. He spends his summers there, actually, and it is not at all indifferent to
    him how the area will look like, after the highway will have been built.


    ʺIt is hard to imagine such a
    transformation. In a couple of years’ time the valley will most likely be a huge
    construction site, but, when the highway is completed, and if possible, with
    the help of the authorities, it will develop harmoniously, we hope, ideally
    speaking, also taking into account the specialists’ opinion…maybe the reconditioning
    of the river banks, maybe the reconstruction of certain pathways, of certain little
    bridges, maybe the proposal of several local constructions, that also including
    buildings which can be put to good use for the highway – parking areas, hotels,
    guesthouses – which somehow can preserve the architectural specificity, at once
    preserving a coherence of the valley. With the help pf the project, we believe
    we could open a dialogue or we can bring together the local authorities and the
    high-level ones, so that a dialogue proper can be initiated to that end, and
    together, they can build the valley harmoniously, naturally. We hope we could
    influence that valley for the better or have a beneficial intervention in that
    process of change.


    That outcome would be an ideal one, by all means. But
    if that may not be the case, unfortunately, the outcome of Cristina and Paul
    Budan’s initiative will be an exceptional work, where joining the two were also
    in the Architects’ Order in Romania, the Village Museum in Bucharest, the Vine
    and Tree Growing Museum in Golesti, Arges County, but also specialists in
    history, sociology, geography, landscaping or volunteer workers, mostly
    student-architects, but also architects who are on the job already. The results
    of their works can be visited at petopologinsus.ro, on the project’s Facebook
    page, but mainly in a book of an exceptional quality, content and design-wise,
    a book which is always impressive in terms of size.


    We’re well aware of the fact that
    modernization is something necessary, we all want that to happen and the infrastructure
    projects are necessary, we all know that. In a separate move, the way things are
    being done matters a lot. First of all, the infrastructure project needs to be implemented
    there with utmost care so that it should not dent the future development of the
    region. What we do hope for, though, is for the project to come up with that promised
    well-being and not take more than it could offer, from that particular place..
    These were the final words of Cristina Brudan, a teaching assistant with the Faculty
    of Architecture in Bucharest. We all want progress, but that should not happen
    at all costs.


    (EN)

  • January 13, 2020

    January 13, 2020

    Iran – Romania is closely monitoring the situation in the Gulf after Iran admitted having downed a Ukrainian plane, and this means monitoring the observance of the Vienna Convention which regulates diplomatic relations and the freedom to assemble in public spaces, shows a post on the official Twitter account of the Romanian Foreign Ministry. On Saturday and Sunday Iran saw street protests against the way in which the authorities communicated about the Ukrainian plane downed near Teheran, after initially the Iranian authorities had claimed it had been an accident. Thousands of Iranian protesters called for the resignation of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, after the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps confirmed Wednesday that they had hit the Ukrainian plane with 176 people on board, mostly Iranians and Canadians.



    Highway – An important meeting for the future highway linking Sibiu (centre) to Pitesti (south) is scheduled for today at the Transport Ministry in Bucharest. The meeting is meant to provide clarifications in relation to a request by the EC regarding the impact of this major infrastructure project on the environment. Granting European non-reimbursable funds for this project depended on these very clarifications. The meeting is being attended by representatives of the transport, European funds and environment ministries, and of the agencies for protected areas and environment protection. European experts will also participate in the meeting to provide consultancy for preparing infrastructure projects. Of the 5 segments of the highway, a contract for design and construction has been signed for only one segment and works are to star in spring. Two segments are still in the assessment stage, while for the other two segments, actually the most difficult ones given their location in a mountainous area, a tender will be held. At least 11 protected natural sites, located on the route of the highway, need concrete measures for conservation, which Romania has not yet taken, the EC concluded. The total value of the project stands at 1.3 billion Euros of which 85% is to be disbursed by the EC.



    School – Pre-school and school children on Monday started the second semester, one the longest semesters in the Romanian school’s recent history. It is by 5 weeks longer than the first semester. The spring holiday is scheduled for April 4th to 21st. The education minister Monica Anisie has announced that this week she will submit for public debate the methodology for the organization of contests for general inspectors and school managers.



    Handball – Romania’s national men’s handball team defeated, on Sunday evening, the Italian side in Benevento, 29-24, in their last match in the 3rd preliminary group of the 2021 World Championship. The Romanian handballers had already qualified to the 2nd stage of the preliminaries of the 2021 World Championship, after defeating Kosovo on Saturday and Georgia on Sunday. Romania is ranked 1st in the final classification, with 6 points, being followed by Kosovo with 3 points, Georgia with 2 points and Italy 1 point. Only the first ranked team will go ahead to the next stage. However, in order to go as far as next year’s World Championship to be hosted by Egypt, the Romanian handball team needs to pass two playoff rounds playing against two teams that are participating in the European Handball Champions under way these days in Austria, Norway and Sweden. Romania previously participated in a world handball championship in 2011.



    Strasbourg — Strasbourg is hosting today the first meeting of the European Parliament in 2020. Debates will focus on deescalating tensions in Iran and Libya in the context of the latest developments in the Middle East. Also, an important moment of today’s meeting is the presentation of the priorities of the Croatian presidency of the Council of the EU. The MEPs will also tackle such issues as the application and monitoring of the rights of the European citizens in Great Britain, the situation of the judiciary in Hungary and Poland as well as the European Green Deal. Romania has 32 representatives in the EP out of a total of 751 members.



    Deficit — Romania reported the 3rd biggest current account deficit in the EU in the 3rd quarter of 2019. According to data published on Monday by Eurostat, the EU member states with the biggest current account deficit in the assessed period were Great Britain (23.9 billion Euros), France (4.1 billion Euros) and Romania (3.6 billion Euros). In another development, Romania’s national bank announced on Monday that from January to November 2019 the current account of the balance of payments reported a deficit of almost 10 billion Euros, higher by 21% as compared to the one reported in the same period of the previous year. (translation by L. Simion)

  • January 12, 2020 UPDATE

    January 12, 2020 UPDATE

    Highway — An important meeting for the future highway linking Sibiu (centre) to Pitesti (south) is scheduled for Monday at the Transport Ministry in Bucharest. The meeting is meant to provide clarifications in relation to a request by the EC regarding the impact of this major infrastructure project on the environment. Granting European non-reimbursable funds for this project depended on these very clarifications. The meeting announced by the line minister Lucian Bode is going to be attended by representatives of the transport, European funds and environment ministries, and of the agencies for protected areas and environment protection. European experts will also participate in the meeting to provide consultancy for preparing infrastructure projects. Of the 5 segments of the highway, a contract for design and construction has been signed for only one segment and works are to star in spring. Two segments are still in the assessment stage, while for the other two segments, actually the most difficult ones given their location in a mountainous area, a tender will be held. The total value of the project stands at 1.3 billion Euros of which 85% is to be disbursed by the EC.



    Gendarmes — 14 Romanian gendarmes, who participated in the NATO mission of training the Afghan public order and security forces for almost 6 months, retuned home on Sunday. In Afghanistan the Romanian gendarmes carried out tens of missions of training and protection, for which they received the non-Article 5 NATO Medal, shows the Facebook page of the Romanian Gendarmerie. 12 contingents of the Romanian Gendarmerie have so far been deployed as part of the NATO mission in Afghanistan. At present, the Gendarmerie is participating in 9 international missions under the aegis of the EU, the UN and the OSCE.



    Epee — The Romanian fencer Ana Maria Popescu, 35, won the silver medal in the women’s epee event at the 2020 Fencing World Cup in Havana, Cuba, after she was defeated in the final by the Polish Aleksandra Zamachowska. An Olympic champion in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 in the team event, Ana Maria Popescu defeated in the eighth finals the Ukrainian Olena Aleksandra Zamachowska, in the quarter finals she won against the Chinese Sun Yiwen and in the semifinals she defeated the French Marie-Florence Candassamy. Another Romanian fencer Amalia Tătăran was defeated in the quarter finals by Zamachowska after she had defeated the Italian Giulia Rizzi in the eighth finals. (update by L. Simion)