ANALYSIS: About 230 km of highway will be completed by the end of 2016

The European Commission has accepted the final version of the General Transport Master Plan (GTMP), together with key documents which establish priority projects and the timing of realization. Compared to the previous version, which was rejected by the European authorities, excepting small changes, such as turning Paşcani - Bacău from highway to expressway or expansion to three lanes of the highway Bucharest-Piteşti, the new document basically refers to two possible scenarios: one optimistic, in which the local authorities could build by 2020 almost all major roads in the plan and the other pessimistic, in which, because of wrong fiscal policies and lack of reform, Romania will succeed to complete only Sibiu - Piteşti highway and other few works already started. However, the European Commission approved the Large Infrastructure Operational Program, a document for the use of EU funds in 2014-2020 in the sectors of transport, environment and energy. The new Minister of Transport, Iulian Matache, said that lack of strategic stability and a clear delimitation of priority investments in the past have led to results that were not satisfactory and "more resources and opportunities were lost as a result of failure to complete or achieving a transport infrastructure and services of low quality". At the end of 2014, the length of national roads and highways under the administration of the Company of Motorways and National Roads in Romania (CNADNR SA) was of about 16,360 km, of which 15,665 km represent national roads, and 695 km are motorways. On the national road network, there are 4,130 bridges with a total length of 212,681 meters and 10 traffic tunnels with a length of approximately 1,967 meters. Following the evaluation of the technical condition of national roads and highways, for 61% of the network is necessary to conduct regular maintenance and repair works. By the end of 2015, CNADNR announced that it will complete the construction of 62.5 km of highways, following that in 2016 to complete the about 165 km.