Skip to main content

Astaldi wins contract for part of Romania’s Brasov–Oradea motorway

Italian contractor Astaldi, as part of a joint venture, has won a €100 million contract to build of motorway in Romania. The contract is 18km of the Brasov–Oradea section of the partially built A3 Autostrade, a 584km route that runs north to south, from the border with Hungary to the capital Bucharest. Astalsi’s design and construction work includes three viaducts, five overpasses, three flyovers, and one motorway interchange. Work will begin in May and last for 16 months. Work on the Brasov-Oradea
April 19, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
Italian contractor 1324 Astaldi, as part of a joint venture, has won a €100 million contract to build of motorway in Romania.

The contract is 18km of the Brasov–Oradea section of the partially built A3 Autostrade, a 584km route that runs north to south, from the border with Hungary to the capital Bucharest.

Astalsi’s design and construction work includes three viaducts, five overpasses, three flyovers, and one motorway interchange. Work will begin in May and last for 16 months.

Work on the Brasov-Oradea section – also known as the Transylvania Motorway - has been dogged by contract and financial disputes for more than a decade.

The entire section was originally scheduled to be built by the American company 4138 Bechtel Corporation with 5252 Enka of Turkey. The contract was awarded in 2004 but without an open bidding process. Costs rose from €2.8 billion in 2003 to an estimated €4.7 billion by 2007 estimate. Bechtel’s work has since then been reduced.

Three-quarters of the cost for Astaldi’s deal is coming from European funds and the remaining 25% by the federal government.

Astaldi will carry out the works as leader of a joint venture established with German construction firm Max Bogl. Together they had a 48.5% stake in the project. Astaldi has worked with Bogle before in Romana, including on the Lia Manoliu National Stadium in Bucharest, completed in 2012.

Astaldi Group has been active in Romania for more than 20 years and has built more than 250km of roads and motorways, including the Piata Sudului road underpass, as well as the A1-Curiel expressway. Astaldi has also built two international airports - Henri Coanda in  Bucharest and Avram Iancu in Cluj-Napoca.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Romania: Fagaras-Brasov work to start soon
    January 24, 2022
    A design contract for the 43km Fagaras-Brasov section of the 130km-long Brasov-Sibiu motorway was signed last summer.
  • Transylvanian motorway breaks new ground in engineering
    July 11, 2012
    Normally in hilly ground, we would use the excavated soil from the cuttings to fill the valleys," says Bogdan Sgarcitu, External Affairs Manager of construction company Bechtel. "But on this stretch the clay-like soil cannot be compacted, so we've had to use many more piles than normal: in just three months we installed more than 500, some drilled as deep as 24m. We've also had to transport millions of tonnes of materials over some less-than-perfect infrastructure."
  • Kosovo's highway and bridge construction on target
    May 4, 2012
    In Kosovo, work is pushing ahead of schedule on the Route 7 highway to link capital Pristina with the Albanian border. Sections of the 120km highway have been opened, one year ahead of schedule. An official opening of several sections of the highway has been carried out by Kosovan leaders, including Prime Minister Hashim Thaçi, President Atifete Jahjaga, and members of Parliament, along with Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha and US representatives Eliot Engel (D- NY) and Gary Peters (D-MI) joined thousan
  • EC approves €246 million for Targu Mures-Campia Turzii motorway
    June 22, 2018
    The European Commission has approved €246 million towards construction of Romania’s Targu Mures-Campia Turzii section of the A 3motorway. The EC money for the 51km four-lane section is from the EC’s Cohesion Fund, according to a report by the Romania Journal. Bechtel was originally going to build most of the 603km A3 to connect Bucharest with the Transylvania region and the north-west part of the country. Work should have started by now but contractual issues with Bechtel hampered progress.