The Suplacu de Barcau-Bors highway, the last section of Transilvania highway to be built by US Bechtel, had the lowest progress, of under 0.1%, although CNADNR says it has no debts to the American company anymore. In fact, this section, which should be ready by the end of this year, progressed by less than 10% in the last 21 months, considering that on July 1, 2010 the construction site was 39.5% ready and on May 1, 2012 it was 49.12% completed.
This is the fourth time in the last few months that ZF monitors the evolution of the ten largest highway sites in Romania, in a bid to offer a picture on the progress of works.
The Deva-Orastie highway, built by Austria’s Strabag and by Straco Grup, controlled by brothers Alexandru and Traian Horpos, recorded the biggest advance, of 11% in the three months – February, March and April. Almost a third of this highway, which should be completed by February next year, was ready at the beginning of May.
The Moara Vlasiei-Ploiesti highway, built by Spedition UMB (Dorinel Umbrarescu), Pa&CO International (Costel Casuneanu) and Euro Construct Trading 98 (Dan Besciu and Sorin Vulpescu) advanced 10% during the three months. However, the highway is significantly behind schedule. The Bucharest-Ploiesti highway (from Bucharest’s ring road to Ploiesti’s ring road) was supposed to be inaugurated in December last year, but then two new deadlines were announced – April and May, and recently transport ministry Ovidiu Silaghi came up with a new deadline – June 30.
On the other hand, Arad’s ring road, built at highway standards by Spain’s FCC Construccion and by Austria’s Porr Technobau, advanced 3%, after a progress of almost 14% between November 1 2011 and February 1 2012. The physical stage on May 1 was 88% with the ring road set to be ready by June.
Similarly, Constanta’s highway-standard bypass, built by FCC Construction and by Italy’s Astaldi, is around 70% ready, but the advance is of less than 2% against February 1.
The lowest advance was recorded by the Suplacu de Barcau-Bors highway, built by Bechtel: 0.08% in three months. Although it did not provide data on the total amount that it had paid to Bechtel for this section by May 1, CNADNR says it has not debts to the constructor. By February 1, the US company had collected EUR267 million for Suplacu de Barcau-Bors, i.e. more than half the value of the contract.
Bechtel representatives could not be contacted by press time to present a point of view on the rather weak advance of the Suplacu de Barcau-Bors section between February 1 and May 1. February was a dead month for the construction sector, when snow fell across the entire country, but starting in March the weather improved and it became possible to resume works.
“The overall economic situation could have affected to some extent the contractors doing the work, with the effects of this situation being visible in the actual stage of works. But I think irrespective of the elements that can generate delays, adequate planning and a proactive attitude can be efficient instruments to prevent this situation from occurring,” says Florin Popa, managing partner of construction consultancy Vitalis Consulting.
CNADNR has for the first time provided information about the physical stage of works for all 17 highway constructions sites in Romania. The best-faring one is lot 1 of the Timisoara-Lugoj section, built by Spedition UMB and Italy’s Carena. The 9.5-km section should be ready by April next year. The fourth lot of the Orastie-Sibiu section is 19.4% ready, being set for completion in April 2013. The construction of this section is handled by Astaldi and by Romanian-held Euro Construct Trading 98.
Ziarul Financiar started a monitoring campaign of the ten largest highway construction sites in Romania in October 2011. The percentages regarding the stages of execution do not indicate the number of km of highway ready (in other words if a 100-km highway is 50% ready, it doesn’t necessarily mean 5 km of highway are ready to open for traffic) but they are enough to show the reality on the ground. The ZF calculation as to the average progress of highways in the two mentioned periods is a simplistic one and was done as an arithmetic average of the differences between the stages of execution at the end and at the beginning of the period being considered.
(English version by Daniela Stoican)