The road section at Maroskece/Chețani will be built by the National Company for Road Infrastructure Administration (Compania Nationala de Administrate al Infrastructurii Rutiere or CNAIR in Romanian) in an estimated two months. The section plays a key role in the progress of the A3 Transylvania Motorway, a long-overdue infrastructure project. With this section finished, a further 18 kilometers of brand-new highway will be open to motorists this year.
The Regional Directorates of Roads and Bridges (Directia Regionala de Drumuri si Poduri or DRDP) Brassó/Brasov and Kolozs/Cluj will take over the work originally contracted by the Romanian association known as Straco. The company is still working on a 16-kilometer motorway segment between Marosvásárhely/Târgu Mureș and Maroskece/Chețani. However, slow progress has forced the national road authority to remove the section from the contract.
When the Italian constructor Astaldi completes the contracted A3 motorway segment between Radnót/Iernut and Maroskece/Chețani, motorists will have a further 18 kilometers of highway shortening their trip from Ártánd to the heart of Transylvania. Unfortunately, this cannot be said of the segment contracted by Straco: While Astaldi’s progress is at 88.99 percent, Straco has finished only 31.84 percent of their construction started in May 2016.
Since Straco has filed for insolvency, the national road authority decided to support the company by simply removing the burden of building the Maroskece road section. The CNAIR’s decision was also a good move, as it helps counter its reputation for building “museum motorways” (aka highways that cannot be opened to traffic). These are frequently mentioned by critics of the authority’s work, which, looking back over the past ten years, can easily be characterized as a headless chicken.
Title image: The Maroskece/Chețani road section. Image credit: G4Media
