Romanian authorities check bolts at new bridge over the Danube, say vast majority are safe

Public road company CNAIR said that all the bolts used at the safety barrier of the new Brăila bridge over the Danube, nicknamed Romania's Golden Gate, have been checked and the vast majority of them are safe.

"Out of a total of 100,000 bolts, 401 were loosened, representing about 0.4% of the total," CNAIR announced.

The authorities decided to inspect all the bolts after a video shared on social media showed a man unscrewing several of the bridge's bolts. In this context, transport minister Sorin Grindeanu said late last week that driving on this bridge is safe, according to News.ro.

The Brăila bridge over the Danube, one of the largest suspension bridges in Europe, the largest over the Danube, and Romania's biggest infrastructure investment of the last 30 years, was officially inaugurated on July 6. Nicknamed Romania's Golden Gate, it has a total length of 1,974.3 meters, with a main span of 1,120 m and two side spans of about 490 m and 365 m long.

Works on the new bridge took about five years, and the updated value of the project exceeded RON 2.5 billion (over EUR 500 million). The EU contribution to this project amounted to EUR 363 million from cohesion policy funds.

(Photo source: Facebook/Compania Nationala de Administrare a Infrastructurii Rutiere)