Third time's a charm for Romanian highway? French – Austrian – Greek trio wins concession bid for 58-km highway segment

A French, an Austrian and a Greek company will together build the 58 kilometres of highway connecting Comarnic to Brasov in Central Romania, in what will be the first highway segment under concession in Romania. This is Romania's third attempt to build this highway segment. French firm Vinci, Greek Aktor and Austrian Strabag have won the tender with Romania's Highways Company CNADNR. Two of these firms are at their second encounter with this project: Vinci and Aktor also won the bid in 2009, but later on gave up on the contract as the Romanian Government did not accept certain clauses, which made it impossible for them to secure financing for the highway. Now, the consortium faced only one other competing offer, from the team made of Impregilo - Salini from Italy. Two other companies had showed interest, China Communications Construction and the consortium made of two local firms, Spedition UMB – Tehnostrade, but none of them went on to submit offers. The estimated construction cost for this highway is of around EUR 1.3 billion, and work will start in April 2014. It could be finalized in 2016 or 2017. Once completed, the companies which hold the concession will manage the highway and place a toll of around EUR 3 per 100 kilometres. The maximum speed on the future highway will be of 130 kilometres an hour. So far, the European Investment Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the World bank showed their interest to finance the project, according to Romanian officials. editor@romania-insider.com