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The Romanian and Bulgarian prime ministers visit
the
Vidin-Calafat
bridge over the Danube River
Boyko Borisov and Víctor Ponta, prime mi-
nisters of Bulgaria and Romania, respecti-
vely, and the European Commissioner for
Regional Politics, Johannes Hahn, visited
the Vidin-Calafat project on 24 October.
Built by FCC Construcción, the infrastruc-
ture over the Danube River connects both
countries, Bulgaria and Romania, and is
currently in the final stages of construction.
The authorities were accompanied by
Spain’s ambassador to Bulgaria, the CEO
of FCC Construcción, José Mayor Ore-
ja, the deputy-director for Europe and the
chief executive of Alpine, Alejandro Tuya,
and other company managers.
They strolled along the bridge to inspect the
trans-border and railway structure, already
connected.
The Bulgarian prime minister stated that the
bridge is one of the most important projects
in the country, supported by the EU, whe-
reas the Romanian minister acknowledge
the excellent work being carried out by FCC
to make this bridge a reality.
The most relevant construction project in
Bulgaria – the second bridge over the Da-
nube river, spans over 1,951 metres and
involves the construction of a 1,951 metre
combined bridge for road and railway tra-
ffic. It has four lanes, a single set of rails,
a bicycle lane, and two sidewalks for pe-
destrians and service uses. It also inclu-
des the construction of the necessary in-
frastructures for road and rail traffic, with a
new freight station, seven new kilometres of
railways, the refurbishment of the existing
passenger station, and the execution of se-
ven junctions at different levels.
Just a few months left before the bridge has
been completed, the work still pending is
to connect the two countries, the final clo-
sing concrete pour measuring 0.4 metres in
length at the last span which be executed
on time after performing the final geometric
topography control.
The infrastructure forms part of the Corri-
dor IV which links Dresden (Germany) with
Istanbul (Turkey). Over 600 people work at
the project, 75% of whom are Bulgarians.
The budget for this bridge over the Danube
and the access roads from the Bulgarian
side is more than 162 million, financed with
a European non-repayable grant from the
Instrument for Structural Policies for Pre-
Accession programme, with funding from
the European Investment Bank, France and
Germany.