ARACO: Megalomaniac motorway plans are no longer an option

The Government’s long-term motorway building strategy, scheduled until 2035, cannot be actually enforced, considering the lack of funds for investments. Constructors suggest more affordable alternatives, which would cut costs three times over.

Building 3,144 km of motorway would involve around 31.44 billion-euro costs over 25 years, as well as major interest rate costs. Considering the high price per kilometre of motorway and the low-traffic areas, production costs may not be covered, according to officials of the Romanian Constructors Association (ARACO), which represents 1,300 construction companies with over 1.5 billion euros in turnover. Romania currently has only 280 km of motorway, ranking last in Europe.

“If there is no money for building motorways, the Government should reach the same conclusion we did, and build cheaper, shorter-term projects. Megalomaniac motorway projects are not viable in the current economic context,” says Alexandru Dobre, an ARACO road infrastructure expert.

Constructors say the motorway programme has not been updated to suit the current economic situation, and that a better option would be to build single carriageway motorways – with no physical separation between opposing lanes and with no emergency lane – and expressways for lower-traffic segments.

For a single carriageway motorway, the investment amounts to 6 million euros/km, while the construction of a three-lane expressway entails costs of 2 million euros/km – for a Swedish-modelled motorway, with a separation area between lanes.

ARACO experts say an investment in a dual carriageway motorway (two lanes plus an emergency lane) is too expensive for sections with low traffic, and that the alternative would be to build single carriageway motorways, like the M49 motorway in Hungary, which extends to the Romanian border.

“On the Oradea-Cluj section, traffic is not so heavy as to justify a double carriageway motorway. With the money invested there so far, one could have built a 100-km single carriageway motorway, because the investment per km would have amounted to half,” says Dobre.