Romania’s high-altitude road Transalpina reopens this weekend

Transalpina, one of Romania’s most famous tourist mountain roads, reopens for traffic this weekend, on June 1, the general director of CNAIR, the company that manages the road infrastructure, announced in a post on social media.

A CNAIR committee checked the condition of the road and decided it was safe to reopen it on June 1, director Cristian Pistol said.

“The mountain road sector between Rânca and Curpăt of DN67C (Transalpina) reopens during the day, between 08:00 and 18:00. Outside of this time interval, access is prohibited for objective reasons related to the specifics of this high altitude mountain area,” the CNAIR official stated.

He also reminded drivers that the maximum speed limit on this road sector is 30 km/hour, and the access of vehicles with a maximum authorized weight of more than 3.5 tons is prohibited.

Transalpina is one of Romania’s main tourist spots, and some say it is even more beautiful than the (probably) better-known Transfăgărășan. It crosses the Parâng Mountains from north to south, offering spectacular and even quite wild landscapes.

The mountain highway climbs to an altitude of 2,145 meters, which makes it the highest road in Romania and one of the highest in the Carpathian Mountains. Thus, due to challenging weather conditions, it is closed during the winter and spring months.

Road crews have also begun snow removal on Transfăgărășan, hoping to reopen it earlier than the usual date of July 1.

(Photo source: Facebook/Cristian Pistol)