But the highway construction sites evolved at different paces in September, with the biggest advance being 13% and the slowest 0.1%.
The first section of the Nadlac-Arad highway managed to advance 13% in September after a very slow progress in the first three quarters, while the construction site of the Suplacu de Barcau-Bors highway, the last section of Transilvania Highway to be built by US Bechtel, advanced by just over 0.1% from September 1 to October 1. But overall work advanced faster in September than during the summer months.
The ten leading highway construction sites in Romania progressed by an average 7.7% in September, helped by the good weather, shows a ZF analysis based on the information sent by the National Roads and Highways Company (CNADNR). The advance was more significant in September than in the three months of summer, when progress did not exceed 4.5-5% on average per month, despite the hot weather.
This is the ninth time this year that ZF monitors the evolution of the ten leading highway construction sites in Romania, in a bid to provide a picture of the progress of work.
In September, some construction sites had a completely different progress from previous months: highways that used to advance at a very slow pace before managed to make up for lost ground in September. For instance the Nadlac-Arad highway managed to advance from around 7.2% on September 1 to 20.4% on October 1. This is the first time since the start of construction work that this highway segment, built by Romanian-held Romstrade and by Portugal’s Monteadriano Engenharia e Construcao, manages to progress at such a fast pace in one month.
The biggest advance in September was recorded on the first section of the Timisoara-Lugoj highway, which was opened for traffic in the second part of October. This section, built by Romanian-held Spedition UMB and by Italy’s Carena, advanced by around 21% in September, being around 97% completed on October 1.
The highway section that made the least progress in September was Suplacu de Barcau-Bors, the last section of Transilvania highway to be built by US Bechtel. It advanced by just 0.12%, to 50.12%, according to data provided by CNADNR.
By the end of the year around 32 km are set to be opened for traffic on the Deva-Orastie highway. In the second part of November, the Cernavoda-Medgidia highway is set to be completed, after one lane per direction had been opened for traffic this summer. The rest of the highways on Pan-European Corridor IV, currently under construction, are set to be ready in April next year, according to the contracts.
Romania could reach 550 km of highway by the end of the year. But even so, Romania remains behind other countries in the region in terms of road infrastructure, being ahead only of Bulgaria, which, despite covering a smaller area than Romania, currently has about the same number of km of highway.
(English version by Daniela Stoican)