Almost any debate on the dragging
\nprocess of modernizing Romania begins and ends with the visible failure of all
\ngovernments, irrespective of their political orientation, to build a reliable
\nnetwork of motorways like it happened in all the ex-communist countries close
\nto the West. <\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
More than 30 years on from the
\ndemise of the communist dictatorship and after 13 years of EU membership,
\nRomania only has 800 kilometers of motorways, out of which 100 inherited from the
\ncommunist regime. None of these motorway routes is crossing its mountains
\nthough. <\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
However, things started to move in
\nthis direction as the European Commission on Thursday announced Romania would get
\nmore than 875 million Euros worth of EU funds for the first stage of the
\nSibiu-Pitesti motorway, which is going to cross the Southern Carpathians from
\nthe north to the south. <\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The money Brussels approved
\ncomes from the Cohesion Fund aimed at bridging development gaps between various
\nregions and EU countries. When complete, Romania will be relying on the first
\nmotorway across the Carpathians linking its western regions to the east from
\nthe port of Constanta to the border checkpoint of Nadlac. The section is
\ndesigned to close the Rhine-Danube 4th European corridor. <\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
According to Lisa Ferreira, the
\nEuropean Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, when ready the project will
\neliminate a major gap in the country’s transport network, increase transport
\nsafety and shorten distances implicitly cutting transportation costs for
\npassengers and goods. Furthermore, this uninterrupted connection route crossing
\nRomania will also benefit the entire Rhine-Danube corridor. <\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The aforementioned motorway is
\ndivided into five sections and works have already commenced on one of
\nthem. A
\nblueprint-construction contract has been signed for the 5th section
\nand blueprint works are to kick off for this route shortly. <\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Bidding procedures have already
\nstarted for the 4th section of the motorway, while documents for the
\n2nd and 3rd sections have been forwarded to the National
\nAgency for Public Procurement where bidding procedures are to begin soon. <\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Two other sections are going to
\ncross the Eastern Carpathians; the first one, called the Union Road, links the
\ncities of Targu Mures, Iasi and Ungheni and the second connects the cities of
\nBrasov and Bacau. Both sections are connecting Transylvania to Moldova,
\nRomania’s poorest historic province, which has no kilometer of highway yet. <\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
According to Prime Minister
\nLudovic Orban, Romania’s economic development hinges on upgrading the country’s
\ninfrastructure bringing it up to European standards. In another development,
\nthe European Commission on Thursday approved another 578 million Euros for
\nRomania, to improve the country’s response capabilities in case of natural
\ndisasters and nuclear accidents. The money is to be used for the purchase of
\nnew equipment and for the training of personnel. <\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
(translated by bill)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Romania will be receiving roughly 1 billion Euros from the European Union to build the first motorway that crosses its mountains<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":80392,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[40052,30027,35530,40053,34082],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-86572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-carpathians","tag-motorway","tag-nadlac","tag-rhine","tag-section"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n