Only 20 of the 72 kilometers of Bucharest’s beltway have been rehabilitated so far. Moreover, although CNADNR allocated more money for upgrading and expanding it to four lanes per way, about 184.2 million lei (EUR41 million), not a single meter of rehabilitated beltway will open for traffic this year.
If the government allocates money in 2014, as well, work on another 20 kilometers will be completed next year at best. Moreover, with the planned construction of the south section of the new Bucharest bypass highway by a concession contract, which will complement the current Bucharest beltway in that part of the city, CNADNR has not yet made a decision whether to go on or stop rehabilitation work on the current bypass.
“The completion of the enlargement of the Bucharest beltway will depend on the budgetary allocations provided by the State budget law,” reads the reply of CNADNR signed Mircea Pop (interim manager of the institution) to ZF’s question about when the rehabilitation work on the 72 kilometers of the beltway should be completed.
The way the Bucharest beltway has been managed in the last few years shows how the government set its road building priorities. While the beltway got less and less money and has not been a priority, roads with much less traffic such as DN (national road) 67C Bengesti-Sebes and DN 2D Focsani-Ojdula (10,000 to 15,000 cars a day) have got about EUR470 million in the last few years.
CNADNR allocated RON5.9 billion for this year’s investments, according to its website.
“We made sure to squander hundreds of millions of euros on Bucharest-Ploiesti (highway i.e.) and it is [therefore] natural that we not have a four-lane per way Bucharest beltway. The longer it gets delayed, the harder it will be for us,” says Augustin Hagiu, transport consultant. “Bucharest won’t truly develop to its potential if the beltway issue is not addressed.”
The Bucharest beltway will get more money this year than last year. At last summer’s revision, it only had EUR3 million left despite the fact that many repair and enlargement contracts had already been awarded and the very difficult traffic on this road should have become a priority for CNADNR.
CNADNR says work is in progress on two of the five sections for which it has signed contracts since 2008, which means about 20 kilometers of the total that should be completed by 2014 “depending on the funds provided through the 2014 Budget Law,” CNADNR’s interim manager said.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)