When will Moldova have a highway? Who has to build it and at what stage are the works (Video)
After decades of suffering from the lack of high-speed roads, Moldova is preparing for its first kilometers of highway. They will not be ready in 2023, but if sustained work is carried out, traffic will most likely be in 2024 or 2025 on a few tens of kilometers of motorway from the A7 and A8.
Here’s which stadium each construction site is in and which highway sections exist, still, only on paper.
A7 highway Ploiesti-Siret: 65 kilometers should be completed in 2024
The A7 highway would be about 437 km long and connect Ploiesti and Siret (a town in Suceava county).
The road does not cut through the Carpathians, as the A8 Autostrada would do. But it will intersect the A3 highway south of Ploiești, in the commune of Dumbrava. And from there it will allow cars – including heavy ones, which transport goods – to go up, through the outside of the Carpathian arch, on the route Buzău-Focșani-Bacău-Pașcani-Suceava-Siret, up to the northern border of Romania.
It would be a great help for Moldova’s economy, which has lagged behind because goods cannot be transported quickly and in good road conditions, such as those provided by a highway.
The A7 route was divided into several sections and lots. Here is the situation:
- Section I (Ploiești – Buzău) will be just over 63 km. will tit starts from the south of Ploiești, from the commune of Dumbrava, from an intersection with the A3 highway coming from Bucharest. It will have 3 lots. The first one, between Dumbrava and Mizil (21 km), must be built by the Italian contractor Impresa Pizzarotti by 2024 (in the images below you can see what to work on so far). The second lot, between Mizil and Pietroasele (28.35 km) must be done, by 2024, by an association formed by Coni SRL and Trace Group. And for the last lot, Pietroasele – Buzău (13.9 km), a tender was won by the Association of Turkish Companies Nurol Insaat ve Ticaret AS – Makyol Insaat Sanayi Turizm ve Ticaret AS. No contract has been signed yet.
- Section II (Buzău – Focșani) will be approximately 82.5 km long. It is divided into 4 lots. For 2 of them (the ends – n.red), with a cumulative length of about 15 km, a contract was signed with a company association led by UMB Spedition, the family company of businessman Dorinel Umbrărescu. The deadline for the completion of the works is 2024 (below you can see images from the lot near Focșani – n.ed.). For the other two lots, auctions were organized and won by the same Umbrărescu companies. No contract has been signed yet.
- Section III (Focșani – Bacău) will be a little over 95 km. It is divided into 3 sections. The company association led by UMB Spedition was contracted for all of them, which would complete the works in 2025. In Bacău, 17 km of Ring Road have already been built, the highway profile and the inauguration of UMB Spedition. You can see what the already built road looks like and how it was driven through the area last fall in the video material below:
- Tronsoul IV (Bacău – Pașcani). It will be around 77.4 km, divide into 3 sections. The Umbrărescu family companies were selected in December 2022 to build this road segment as well. The contracts will be signed.
- Sections V (Pașcani – Suceava) and VI (Suceava Siret), which together will be just over 100 km, they are still in the documentation preparation phase. No tenders have been launched for the selection of builders.
A8 highway: About 40 km with money from PNRR, if we finish in 2026
When it is ready, the A8 highway, over 310 km long, will connect Târgu Mureș and Ungheni (from Iasi county, on the border with the Republic of Moldova).
The road will pass through the mountains. So it has at least one portion that will be expensive and difficult to build.
Currently, the Ministry of Transport is trying to speed up part of the procedures in order to get funding from the PNRR for at least 40 km of this high-speed road.
More precisely, the route would leave from Târgu Mureș and cover a distance of 24 km to Miercurea Nirajului.
Then will follow the most difficult part of the road that will have to cut the Eastern Carpathians, up to Leghin.
And from Leghin, the high-speed road would continue for about 30 km to Moțca (east of Târgu Neamț).
From this whole route, the National Road Infrastructure Administration Company managed to launch, in December 2022, tenders only for the ends: Târgu Mureș – Miercurea Nirajului (24 km) and Leghin-Motca (30 km).
If the works are finished by 2026, the Ministry of Transport will be able to pay for these highway ends with money from the PNRR. If not, it will lose European funding.
For the mountain section, between Miercurea Nirajului and Leghin, the documentation is still being worked on. The environmental consent must be issued. We need technical economic indicators adopted by the Government. Then tender to select the designer. The drawing up of the technical project and the building permit. And only then could work begin. When exactly that will happen, we don’t know. Much depends on the political decisions of the Government, money and the pace at which the documentation will be completed and tenders will be held.
On the remaining section, the one between Moțca and Ungheni, a clear route is yet to be established, paccording to the information provided by Cătălin Urtoi, adviser to the Minister of Transport.
In other words, progress is being made, but it is small. And at the moment there is no certainty that the highway will be built from one end to the other.
Spot.ro will follow the evolution of the road segment media. And we will come back with details.