Bridge milestones for Transylvania in Romania

The Transylvania Bridge - Romania’s longest cable-stayed bridge - and the Buzău River Bridge - the country’s longest bridge - were recently completed.

Strabag Romania has completed Romania’s longest cable-stayed bridge, the 644m-long Transilvania Bridge in Satu Mare, at a cost of around €40 million.

The project marks the most significant infrastructure development in the city in more than 40 years and one of the most complex in Romania, the company said. Construction of the bridge over the Someș River began in May 2020 and features a harp-design involving two 73m-high pylons supporting 56 cables.

The structure includes four vehicle lanes, two pedestrian walkways and a cycle lane, improving access between the northern and southern districts of Satu Mare, capital city of Satu Mare County with a population of around 93,000 and broadly part of Transylvania.

“The Transylvania Bridge is more than a structure made of concrete, steel and iron; it is a new symbol of the city of Satu Mare, an engineering marvel and an economic landmark for our entire town,” said Gábor Kereskényi, mayor of Satu Mare.

The project incorporated advanced construction methodologies, including Building Information Modeling (BIM) 5D for integrated planning and execution. To ensure optimal alignment and tensioning of the stay cables, the Strabag team used drone-mounted LIDAR technology to accurately map the anchorage base plates within the bridge pylons. The resulting high-resolution data was processed over 48 hours using a high-performance server, notes the company.

The new Buzău River Bridge - second longest in Romania - will redirect traffic from the Mărăcineni bridge and the northern ring road of the city of Buzău (image courtesy Regional Directorate for Roads and Bridges Buzău) — The new Buzău River Bridge – second longest in Romania – will redirect traffic from the Mărăcineni bridge and the northern ring road of the city of Buzău (image courtesy Regional Directorate for Roads and Bridges Buzău)

“Transylvania Bridge in Satu Mare represents our long-term commitment to building future-ready infrastructure solutions for Romania,” said Herbert Schuster, Commercial Subdivision Manager at STRABAG Romania. “Working on the largest infrastructure project in Satu Mare in over 40 years is a source of pride for the Strabag team.”

Meanwhile, local authorities in Buzău County in the south-east of Romania have opened the new bridge over the Buzău River.

With a length of 1.3 km – second longest in the country – the bridge is part of Lot 1 Buzău-Vadu Pașii contract for the A7 Motorway, according to the Romanian news website Romania-Isider.com. The A7 is a strategic motorway to connect the Moldova region with the rest of the country, according to the Regional Directorate for Roads and Bridges Buzău. Cost of the 1.3km-long bridge is around €135.6 million.

The opening of the bridge will improve traffic flow, redirecting it from the Mărăcineni bridge and the northern ring road of Buzău. The city, of around 105,000 people, is a railway hub in south-eastern Romania, where railways linking Bucharest to Moldavia and Transylvania to the Black Sea coast meet.

Construction of the bridge was done by Spedition UMB, part of UMB Group, a private Romanian company owned by the Romanian entrepreneur Dorinel Umbrărescu. He also owns Banca Română de Credite și Investiții – formerly ATEbank Romania – and is commonly known as Romania’s ‘asphalt king’.