Work on the new subway line in Bucharest causes road collapse, affects residential buildings

The work on the new subway line connecting Bucharest’s city center to Drumul Taberei, one of the capital’s busiest residential areas, has damaged the road structure in the Eroilor area, causing the collapse of a road segment. The problems may have also affected the structure of some residential buildings in the vicinity. The local authorities have decided on Sunday to evict 14 people from an apartment building that may have been affected. Ten of those people went to stay with relatives and four went to a hotel, where they had their stay covered by the company that works on the subway line. Bucharest’s local transport company also decided to change the routes of several buses and trolleybuses that pass through the Eroilor area, as the City Hall closed the affected road segment for traffic. The traffic restrictions may be kept for about one month, which may cause some jams in the area. The traffic to Drumul Taberei neighborhood was already bad at rush hours. According to Romania’s Transport Ministry, the problems were determined by underground water that drained when the equipment working on the underground tunnel reached the end and cut its way into the underground station at Eroilor. The water that drained also carried mudflows and caused holes under the road structure, which led to the collapse. The constructors poured in some 200 cubic meters of concrete to fill the holes. The Drumul Taberei – Eroilor underground line is built by a consortium of construction companies made of Italian group Astaldi, Spanish FCC Construccion, and Romanian firms Delta ACM and AB Construct. The work on the line is financed with EU funds. The contracts awarded so far for this line total EUR 585 million. Two new subway sections in Bucharest to be completed at the end of 2016 editor@romania-insider.com