Transportation
Webuild-led Braila Bridge Project Over River Danube Nears Completion in Romania
The bridge recently underwent testing with dozens of trucks ahead of its opening.
Photo courtesy of Webuild
Up to 60 trucks together weighing around 2,650 tons recently tested Romania's newly completed four-lane Brăila highway suspension bridge ahead of its imminent opening.
With a 3,675-ft main span and 6,480-ft overall length, the bridge over the River Danube a couple of miles from the town of Brăila ranks as one of Europe's longest suspension bridges.
Expected to divert 7,000 vehicles a day from existing ferry crossings, the bridge is due to open early next month, though work is 97% complete, transportation minister Sorin Grindeanu announced on social media.
Located on the Danube about 60 miles upstream of the Black Sea, the bridge was built by a consortium controlled by Italy's Webuild S.p.A. and including Japan's IHI Corporation. Italy-based SETIN Servizi Tecnici Infrastrutture S.r.l. handled detailed design.
Funded mostly by the European Union, the design-build contract was awarded by the National Company for Road Infrastructure Management with a value of $475 million in 2018, according to Webuild.
The 80-ft-wide, 10.5-ft-deep steel box deck was lifted from barges in modules assembled in the nearby Vard shipyard by Italy's state-owned Fincantieri Infrastructure.
The company said it fabricated the roughly 22,000 tons of steelwork at its Valeggio sul Mincio facility in northern Italy under a contract initially valued at $76 million.
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