Romanian drivers will soon be able to use a new highway that connects the capital, Bucharest, with Giurgiu, next to the Danube. This road will connect the city with the future location of a new bridge over the Danube. A new expressway is being prepared in Romania. This high-quality road section will have three lanes in both directions, meeting the long-awaited needs of Romanian road users. At the end of July, according to the Romanian National Road Development Company (CNIR), the public consultation for the feasibility study of the Bucharest-Giurgiu Expressway began. It is important to emphasize that this expressway is the own development of the Romanian National Road Development Company (CNIR). The feasibility study covers a period of 18-24 months, and tenders will be issued by the end of the year. The new highway will continue all the way to the A1 in the western part of the capital. This could even be the first stage of a future second ring road surrounding the capital. The head of the new company responsible for large infrastructure projects talked about this in more detail. "Between Bucharest and Giurgiu, we are doing a feasibility study for which we are taking a slightly different approach," says Gabriel Budescu, CEO of CNIR.
The planned road practically connects the Giurgiu-Ruse bridge over the Danube with the current road network and the surroundings of Bucharest. No final decision has yet been made on the exact route. Several options are on the table, including the expressway leading from the southwest towards Bucharest and then connecting to the A1 Bucharest-Pitești highway. "During the planning of the route, we want to examine the possible connection points to the Alexandria-Bucharest highway. We have outlined several possibilities, including the future A0 ring road. It is important to understand from a traffic point of view which variation would be the most effective," explains Budescu. According to Budescu, the largest traffic of the Giurgiu-Bucharest connection will go in the direction of Pitești and Szeban, so the logical continuation would be the extension of the traffic route to the A1. The head of the CNIR assured that the planned road will be a highway, not an expressway. The feasibility study is currently being developed, which will decide what type of expressway it will be. If it is a highway, it would be the A5, which has been present in their transport plans for a long time. Budescu prefers the highway solution, which he says will be the most likely outcome. They are planning to create a road section where there will be three lanes in each direction, which is a rarity in the assets of domestic highways.