Work is progressing on track with the Braila Bridge project in Romania, with the construction around 67% complete. The bridge spans the River Danube and measures 1,975m in length while it has a deck length of 1,120m. Around 23km of access roads are also being built to connect with the bridge.
The suspension bridge and its connecting roads form part of the Rhine-Danube Corridor of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) and will form an important international link for Romania. The bridge is located around 95km from the River Danube Delta and around 8km from the centre of the city of Braila, which has a large commercial port handling medium-sized ocean-going vessels.
Italian contractor Webuild is leading the joint venture team building the bridge, which was commissioned by Romania’s state-owned firm CNAIR for the Ministry of Infrastructure. Funding for the project is being provided by the Operational Programme for Large Infrastructure (POIM).
The link will be Europe’s second longest suspension bridge and will carry two lanes of traffic in either direction as well as featuring lanes for emergencies and facilities for pedestrians and cyclists.
The bridge features 86 steel deck segments, each of which weighs 260tonnes and measures 3.2m thick by 32m long and 25m wide. The sections are manufactured at a facility around 7km from the bridge and are loaded onto barges using a lifting beam, then transported along the river to the construction site. On arrival, the sections are lifted into position and located on the permanent hangars.
The bridge has two adjacent spans of 365m and 490m and also has two access viaducts at either end, each measuring 90m. The bridge has some 38,000km of steel wire incorporated into its suspension cables.
When complete, the bridge will allow journey times of just two minutes across the River Danube, compared with 45 minutes at present for crossings using the ferry service.
