The landmark Braila Suspension Bridge in Romania is being inaugurated officially. This new bridge will provide an important link for Romania, reducing journey times and helping deliver economic growth. Located close to Romania’s borders with Moldova and Ukraine, the bridge also offers the potential for much-needed international trade and transport.
The suspension bridge spans the River Danube, carrying the DX8 route and connecting the town of Braila in Braila County at its western end with Smârdan in Tulcea County on the eastern side. Costing some €500 million, this link is now the third largest suspension bridge in Europe.
The contract for the bridge was awarded in 2017 to the Italian/Japanese joint-venture team Webuild (formerly Astaldi) - IHI Infrastructure Systems. The construction work commenced in 2018 by the now renamed Webuild and its Japanese partner IHI.
The suspension bridge measures 1,974m in length, while it features a main span of 1,120m. On the west bank, there is a side span measuring 490m leading to the main span while on the east bank the side span measures 364m in length. Meanwhile, the tops of the towers are 192.64m above sea level. The towers are also located safely out of the shipping lane.
The bridge was designed with a wide main span so as to allow shipping on the busy River Danube waterway. The navigation channel is 180m wide and even if the River Danube were to reach the record height level seen over the last 40 years, there would still be around 39-40m of clearance. This feature ensures that should climate change result in high water levels, river traffic would be unimpeded.
