New deadline for the highway to link Romania and Hungary

The Romanian Minister Delegate for infrastructure projects of national interest and foreign investments, Dan Şova has announced a new deadline for the construction of the Arad-Nădlac highway.

He said both sectors of the road, Arad-Pecica and Pecica-Nădlac will be opened next year.

The first one is 16.6 kilometers long and 85 percent finished, however the construction stopped this summer after the Austrian contractor Alpine Bau entered insolvency.

Local authorities said hundreds of workers didn’t get their salaries and several companies, including security firms, diners and auto parts stores were left with losses.

The Pecica-Nădlac sector is 22.2 km and is only 20 percent completed.

The Romanian National Company of Motorways (CNADR) canceled the contract last November with an association of three companies from Portugal and Romania because they failed to perform obligations.

Recently, the National Anti-Corruption Directorate (DNA) has started investigating the Romanian associate Romstrade company for misuse of funds.

A new bid was held and CNADR announced in August that the Pecica-Nădlac segment would be finished by two companies: the Italian Astaldi and German Max Boegl.

For the other segment authorities are still preparing the documentation.

The construction site in Pecica, halfway between Arad and Nădlac was visited by president Traian Băsescu in early august this year. He called it an “expression and a symbol of powerlessness” and criticized the Ponta government.

The A1 highway is part of the European Transport Corridor IV, running from Dresden (Germany) to Istanbul (Turkey). When finished, A1 will link Bucharest to the Hungarian M43 highway at Nădlac.

The Hungarian road’s last sector between Makó and the Hungarian-Romanian border is currently under construction and will be finished until the end of 2014.