The ten construction sites are around 240 km-long and cost almost EUR1.7 billion.
The only construction sites where work continued into the first month of autumn are the ones set to open by the end of the year or early next year at the latest. One section, which is set to be finalized within two months, advanced by more than 10%.
The construction site with the fastest pace of works in September is section two of Orastie-Sibiu highway, built by Romanian-held Straco Group and by Italian firm Studio Corona. The construction site progressed by around 11.5% in the first month of autumn, with work now being 80.9% completed.
The section, for which the roads authority will pay almost EUR90 million, should have been ready by April this year, but the construction schedule has been delayed and according to the latest promises of the roads company, the road will be opened for traffic by the end of this year.
Sections one and four of Orastie-Sibiu highway should also be opened by the end of the year. The first section, built by Austrian Strabag for around EUR131 million, advanced by 6.5% in September and is now 88.4% completed. On the fourth section construction progressed by 4.4%, with Italian Astaldi and Romanian company Euro Construct Trading 98 (controlled by Dan Besciu and Sorin Vulpescu) completing around 82.9% of the highway. The contract for the construction of the fourth section of Orastie-Sibiu highway is worth around EUR115 million.
The first section of Lugoj-Deva highway advanced by 8.8% in September. At the beginning of October it was 95.6% finalized, according to data provided by CNADNR. The highway, built by Italian consortium Tirrena Scavi, Societa Italiana per Condotte D’Acqua and Cossi Construzioni for EUR162 million, had April of this year as an original deadline for completion, but now it has been delayed until December, according to CNADNR.
On the other hand, section three of Orastie-Sibiu highway, built by Italian Impregilo, will be ready next year, most likely in April-June. The section was supposed to be ready more than six months ago, but currently it is 73% ready because landslides affected the road. The value of the construction contract for this highway is around EUR144 million.
This is in contrast with the other five highway construction sites monitored by ZF, where work did not advance at all between September 1 and October 1. Two of the contracts for the construction of highways have been cancelled (section two of Nadlac-Arad and Suplacu de Barcau-Bors), one has just been awarded (the first section of Nadlac-Arad), and for the other two construction sites there is not enough money to continue work (the Petricani Road to Bucharest’s Ring Road segment of the Bucharest-Ploiesti highway and the Constanta bypass), according to ZF information.
But in the coming period work should start on three new highway construction sites in western Romania. CNADNR signed construction contracts two weeks ago for the second and the third section of Lugoj-Deva highway after in July it had signed the contract for the fourth section of this highway, but work has yet to start.
The contract for the second section (28.6 km) was signed by the roads authority with Italian company Secol for EUR128 million, while the contract for the construction of the third section (21.2 km) was awarded to companies Teloxim (controlled by Theodor Berna), Comsa (Spain), Aldesa Construcciones (Spain) and Arcadis Eurometudes (Netherlands) for EUR132 million. The fourth section of Lugoj-Deva highway (22.1 km) is set to be constructed by Tehnostrade and Spedition UMB (controlled by Dorinel Umbrarescu), with the contract worth EUR95 million.
(English version by Daniela Stoican)