Braşov beltway to be ready in two months, contractor says

Ovidiu VRÂNCEANU, Braşov

The second segment of the Braşov beltway will be open for traffic within two months at the latest, the contractors said. Segment II of the Braşov beltway connects DN11 (the road to Hărman) and DN 13, near the Stupini wholesaler market. Mayor George Scripcaru said: "This beltway segment will take the heavy traffic out of the city. It will also take over all the traffic coming from Bucharest, Bacău, Buzău, Covasna, as well as traffic from Sibiu and Târgu Mureş". The total value of the investment, which was launched in April 2008, is EUR 15 million, with the funds originating from a loan taken on by the mayoralty of Braşov from the Romanian Commercial Bank (BCR).

The works were not without difficulty, at times, officials of Concefa, (the contractor that won the tender) said. Three passageways were made, two running across a river, and another over a railroad and the electrical power lines. The latter had a total height of 10.57 meters. "For these passageways we had two dig 20 meter deep foundations, we have inserted columns 1.8 meter tall. The reinforcement was made on a 5 to 1 slant, with geogrill, which is a rather new technology in Romania", said Cătălin Dăncuţă, Project Manager at Concefa. The reinforced areas alone used up 144,000 cubic meters of filler. The works were delayed by some issued which arose along the way. The initial deadline was December 17, 2008.

Concefa"s General Manager, Horaţiu Cercel, says: "Unfortunately, the issues which have arisen have set us back a bit. We are now rushing to complete the works, but we are striving not to cut corners to insure the quality of the work. There was a lot of rain last year, the cold season came rather early, and we also had problems with the phreatic water, on the side of DN 13, in Stupini. Due to its high level, we had to dig several pits for collecting water".

The contractors guarantees the quality of the repairs for five years, but compared to the current road system, the execution of the works is guaranteed for 30 years. The current segment of the Braşov beltway includes a lane for each side. Mayor George Scripcaru says that the works will be expanded to include another two lanes, with funding from the Ministry of Transports. The Mayoralty of Braşov and the Ministry of Transports are now working on making the technical plan and on the expropriations for the third segment of the beltway, between DN 13 and DN 1.