Search for the contractor of a 15-kilometre section of the Szekler highway

The public procurement procedure for the new section of the A8 motorway connecting Transylvania with Moldova, the Gheorghe-Alfalu-Ditro motorway section, has been announced, Romanian Transport Minister Sorin Grindeanu said on his Facebook page on Monday.

The final section of the 2×2 lane road between Cluj-Napoca and Târgu Mureș, from which the A8 motorway could start, was handed over last summer by the Strabag and Geiger consortium handed over the 15.7-kilometre section between Aranyosgyéres (Campia Turzii) and Maroskece (Chetani) – nine months ahead of schedule.

The road section is planned to be built with nearly HUF 100 billion

The motorway linking Transylvania and Moldova will be built between Târgu Mures and Ungheni in Moldova and will also pass through Szeklerland. The section between Gergyóalfalu and Ditro in Harghita county is the second section in Szeklerland, for which a public procurement procedure has been launched for the design and construction.

The contract was published on Monday on the electronic public procurement system (SEAP) and bids are invited until 25 November. Sorin Grindeanu said that the cost of the 14.4-kilometre Harghita County section is 1.2 billion lei (96.7 billion forints).

The contractor has to build it in 34 months, 10 months of which is the design period. The Gheorgheni section is one of the most difficult to build of the motorway, which has four mountain sections, 21 flyovers and viaducts, three of which are wildlife crossings. There will also be a road junction at Gheorghe village.

According to the minister, the Gheorghe-Ditro section is the first of the four mountain sections of the motorway, which together cover 116 kilometres, to be put out to tender.

Further sections of the A8

The next one will be the 32.4-kilometre section between Sóvárad and Gheorghe village in Mures county. The 37.9-kilometre section between Ditro and Gerinces (Grinties) in Neamt county, and the 31.5-kilometre section between Gerinces and Piprig will also be put out to tender by the end of November, it said.

The Romanian economic portal Economedia.ro recalls that two Turkish companies have so far submitted bids for the tender for the design and construction of the 23.5-kilometre Nyárádszereda-Sóvárad section.

The contract for the first section in Székely Land was signed in February, and the Turkish company Nurol Insaat Ve Ticaret AS was awarded the contract for the construction of the section between Târgu Mureș and Miercurea Ciuc. The A8 motorway will stretch 304 kilometres between Târgu Mureș and Ungheni, on the border between Romania and Moldova.