Demolished highway’s builder could sue the Romanian state

Italian construction company Salini-Impregilo has threatened to sue the Romanian state, after the local authorities demanded an expertize that showed that the Italian firm had used poor materials to build the Sibiu-Orastie highway in central Romania. The constructor didn’t recognize the expertize ordered by the National Highways Company. According to the expertize made by the company Geotesting CI, the building materials used by Salini-Impregilo were mediocre. A 200-meter segment of the Sibiu-Orastie highway, which opened for traffic in November 2014, was demolished and needs a complete rebuild. The first problems showed up just a couple of months after the inauguration, when the road cracked. The highways company initially said the cracks were superficial and tried to cover them up. Salini-Impregilo has now threatened the state that it would make a complaint at the European Commission, which financed the works. The guarantee letters from the Italian constructor Salini-Impregilo, which built the highway segment, are worth about EUR 20.1 million. editor@romania-insider.com