Romania has retendered the 9km Lugoj-Deva segment of the A1 motorway in the southwest at an estimated cost of €325 million.
The announcement by Romania’s minister of transport, Sorin Grindeanu, noted that the cost is high because the section includes two tunnels that measure together just over 2km in length.
It was earlier this year that the National Road Infrastructure Management Company, CNAIR, said that the technical bid submitted by a Turkish group for the design and execution of part of the Lugoj - Deva section was “non-compliant”, according to national media reports, so the tender has been rescheduled.
Construction of the Lugoj-Deva segment has been troublesome, with landslides due to heavy rains halting work at least twice over the past several years.
When finished, the 580km A1 motorway will run from the southeast to the northwest of the country to connect the capital Bucharest with the Banat and Crișana regions. The motorway starts in the western part of Bucharest and runs through or close to the major cities of Pitești, Sibiu, Deva, Timișoara Arad, reaching the northern border to join Hungary's M43 motorway near Nădlac.
The motorway is part of the pan-continental Trans-European Transport Network’s Rhine-Danube Corridor... As such, the European Union, of which Romania is a member, will contribute 85% of funding for construction. The road is also part of the proposed Via Carpatia.
