[RO] Romanian Motorways and Highways • România - autostrăzi şi drumuri

[ChrisZwolle]

There aren't much motorways in Romania, and the road network is one of the least developed ones in the European union. However things are going to change in the future. The largest road construction project is in Romania, the A1 from the Hungarian border to the existing A1 near Piteşti, to be completed by 2014.

The A2 is in use between Bucureşti (Bucharest) and Cernavodă (means Black Water or something?) The section Cernavodă - Constanţa and the Constanţa bypass are to be completed by 2010.

The A3 is under construction since 2004, between Braşov and Oradea, the majority of the route, to be completed in 2013. The Bucureşti - Ploiesti section is to be completed by 2010 (i thought this consists of upgrading of the existing expressway/boulevard).

The A4 is to start in 2008 and goes from Târgu Mureş on the A3 in Central Romania to Iaşi (Romania's 2nd city) near the Moldovian border.

The A5 goes from Ploieşti on the A3 to Albiţa on the Moldovian border, and is only in planning stages, to be completed by 2016.

Drivers need a rovignetă (toll sticker) on the windshield, like Bulgaria.

As of 2007, 264km of motorways were in use. By 2016 that amount should have been increased to 2004km. Also, 53km of Expressways are in use today. That will be 83km in the future (expansion of the Bucharest - Giurgu road to the Bulgarian border near Ruse).

[ChrisZwolle]

It is generally very hard to find pics of Romanian motorways, but i found some on the Polish subforum. Dziękuję Polska!

The A1 Pitesti - Bucharest:




























Looks quite good.

[radi6404]

It looks fucking awesome, the crashbarriers look really new, it looks very modern, well done.

[x-type]

it seems that whole motorway Bucureşti - Piteşti is renewed recently because i have seen some very dissapointing photos before. tarmac is in excellent condition and traffic signs look quite modern. bad things are missing of night catadiopter sticks beside the road, unlit exits and i don't know if i see good, but it seems that protecting fence beside the road is missing, althought it maybe just isn't visible at blured photos

[RawLee]

Originally Posted by x-type

it seems that whole motorway Bucureşti - Piteşti is renewed recently because i have seen some very dissapointing photos before. tarmac is in excellent condition and traffic signs look quite modern. bad things are missing of night catadiopter sticks beside the road, unlit exits and i don't know if i see good, but it seems that protecting fence beside the road is missing, althought it maybe just isn't visible at blured photos

Maybe the explanation is that the old secton is not upgraded yet, or is being upgraded,and the fence is the last,since that dosent need the road to be closed.

[wyqtor]

Originally Posted by Chris1491

Cernavodă (means Black Water or something?)

Yes, but only technically. I suspect it was named this way during the migration of the Slavs. But today no Romanian would recognize the meaning unless he had some contact with Slavic languages, because we kept words from Latin for basic things like colors, nature, etc. In Romanian it would be called "Apa neagră".

[wyqtor]

Originally Posted by x-type

it seems that whole motorway Bucureşti - Piteşti is renewed recently because i have seen some very dissapointing photos before. tarmac is in excellent condition and traffic signs look quite modern. bad things are missing of night catadiopter sticks beside the road, unlit exits and i don't know if i see good, but it seems that protecting fence beside the road is missing, althought it maybe just isn't visible at blured photos

My, how things change! Some 8 years ago the A1 was a motorway only in name: no emergency lane and the pavement was a complete mess, full of potholes. In the meantime, it was repaired quite a few times, but every next year after the repairs it would return to its former condition, because the works had been done badly.

That resulted in a lot of wasted money by our leaders - OUR money, of course! They also chose the firms that were to repair the motorway based on their own interests (i.e. nepotism), not on the quality of work.

I hope its current condition lasts!

Anyway, those glowy sticks (at night) beside the motorway were probably installed at first, but they are regularly stolen by gypsies to make (illicit) money for themselves. (and then they start complaining about discrimination!). They also regularly steal those things installed on the middle crashbarrier on the A2 that prevent you from being blinded by the headlights of oncoming traffic on the other carriageway (don't know their exact name).

As for the missing crashbarrier beside the road, I think those sections are quite dangerous, you could always hit a wild animal wandering on the motorway - I noticed this situation in Hungary on the M5 also.

As a conclusion I have to point out that traffic on Romania's roads is horrible - the national road network is overcrowded, as we have only 2 (incomplete) motorways, major cities are jammed at rush hour - e.g. when driving from Hungary to, say, Bucharest you have to enter 300.000+ cities like Arad (or Timisoara), Sibiu, and 200.000+ like Deva, because there is absolutely no way to avoid them - they don't even have a 2-lane road acting as a bypass! You can imagine the resulting chaos. I hear Bucharest is literally crawling at standstill in rush hours - it only has a 2-lane bypass at the moment, which is probably unheard of for a city of 2 million people.

[RawLee]

Originally Posted by wyqtor

My, how things change! Some 8 years ago the A1 was a motorway only in name: no emergency lane and the pavement was a complete mess, full of potholes. In the meantime, it was repaired quite a few times, but every next year after the repairs it would return to its former condition, because the works had been done badly.

That resulted in a lot of wasted money by our leaders - OUR money, of course! They also chose the firms that were to repair the motorway based on their own interests (i.e. nepotism), not on the quality of work.

I hope its current condition lasts!

Anyway, those glowy sticks (at night) beside the motorway were probably installed at first, but they are regularly stolen by gypsies to make (illicit) money for themselves. (and then they start complaining about discrimination!). They also regularly steal those things installed on the middle crashbarrier on the A2 that prevent you from being blinded by the headlights of oncoming traffic on the other carriageway (don't know their exact name).

As for the missing crashbarrier beside the road, I think those sections are quite dangerous, you could always hit a wild animal wandering on the motorway - I noticed this situation in Hungary on the M5 also.

As a conclusion I have to point out that traffic on Romania's roads is horrible - the national road network is overcrowded, as we have only 2 (incomplete) motorways, major cities are jammed at rush hour - e.g. when driving from Hungary to, say, Bucharest you have to enter 300.000+ cities like Arad (or Timisoara), Sibiu, and 200.000+ like Deva, because there is absolutely no way to avoid them - they don't even have a 2-lane road acting as a bypass! You can imagine the resulting chaos. I hear Bucharest is literally crawling at standstill in rush hours - it only has a 2-lane bypass at the moment, which is probably unheard of for a city of 2 million people.

Erm..we have fences along the road...a crashbarrier wont hold a rabbit or a rat ott the road.
And Budapest also doesnt have a bypassmaybe a quarter and all our hughways end there.
BTW,how's the highway going in Transylvania?

[ChrisZwolle]

Originally Posted by wyqtor

As a conclusion I have to point out that traffic on Romania's roads is horrible - the national road network is overcrowded, as we have only 2 (incomplete) motorways, major cities are jammed at rush hour - e.g. when driving from Hungary to, say, Bucharest you have to enter 300.000+ cities like Arad (or Timisoara), Sibiu, and 200.000+ like Deva, because there is absolutely no way to avoid them - they don't even have a 2-lane road acting as a bypass! You can imagine the resulting chaos. I hear Bucharest is literally crawling at standstill in rush hours - it only has a 2-lane bypass at the moment, which is probably unheard of for a city of 2 million people.

I think Romania's road network is the worst in Europe.. Except for Albania maybe. Even in Russia, most larger cities have bypasses, and a lot of main roads in Russia are 2+1 or 2+2 lanes with no divider.
And i don't think things are gonna change fast. Romania is big, mountainous and busy. So rehabilitating the roads would take some significant time. But constructing the above motorways from the 1st post would definatly change things, making Romania an important hub in the Balkans, which would be good for the economy. But don't bother, Budapest and Warszawa weren't build in one day either

[x-type]

Originally Posted by wyqtor

Anyway, those glowy sticks (at night) beside the motorway were probably installed at first, but they are regularly stolen by gypsies to make (illicit) money for themselves. (and then they start complaining about discrimination!). They also regularly steal those things installed on the middle crashbarrier on the A2 that prevent you from being blinded by the headlights of oncoming traffic on the other carriageway (don't know their exact name).

i think that you have (had) a lot of problems with people at SOS lane at motorway (gypsies probably) who are selling things beside motorway or just doing something. or even sleeping in a car. i saw a part of news at youtube about some horrible accident that happend because of vehicle stopped without reason in SOS lane.

Originally Posted by wyqtor

As for the missing crashbarrier beside the road, I think those sections are quite dangerous, you could always hit a wild animal wandering on the motorway - I noticed this situation in Hungary on the M5 also.

no no, i'm not talking about crashbarrier, but about fence (like iron net) which is usually put some 15 m from motorway to avoid animals or people to access motorway

[wyqtor]

Originally Posted by RawLee

Erm..we have fences along the road...a crashbarrier wont hold a rabbit or a rat ott the road.
And Budapest also doesnt have a bypassmaybe a quarter and all our hughways end there.

Yes, but at least you got the M0 to direct the heaviest traffic: from Szeged towards Győr, Vienna & Balaton. You are right about the crashbarrier, as for fences I will be on the lookout on Saturday when I will travel on the M5 once again

[x-type]

wyqtor, where are you from? parhaps you could do some nice photos from Romanian raods, they are really rare at internet (not neccesserly motorways)

[RawLee]

Originally Posted by wyqtor

Yes, but at least you got the M0 to direct the heaviest traffic: from Szeged towards Győr, Vienna & Balaton. You are right about the crashbarrier, as for fences I will be on the lookout on Saturday when I will travel on the M5 once again

Here is the thread:http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showth...=389944&page=4

Credit to Qtya.

[wyqtor]

Originally Posted by x-type

wyqtor, where are you from? parhaps you could do some nice photos from Romanian raods, they are really rare at internet (not neccesserly motorways)

My hometown is 60 km away from Timisoara and 18 km away from the Hungarian border, in Romania of course. Unfortunately I mostly travel on just one road, national road 6 from Timisoara to the border, but I will try to take some pictures on Saturday, at least of the road towards the border. I will be returning from vacation in about 2 weeks, so I will post some pictures by then if all goes well.

[RawLee]

Originally Posted by wyqtor

My hometown is 60 km away from Timisoara and 18 km away from the Hungarian border, in Romania of course. Unfortunately I mostly travel on just one road, national road 6 from Timisoara to the border, but I will try to take some pictures on Saturday, at least of the road towards the border. I will be returning from vacation in about 2 weeks, so I will post some pictures by then if all goes well.

Then have a good time! Where will you go? Relaxing-vacation or sightseeing-vacation?

[wyqtor]

Originally Posted by RawLee

Then have a good time! Where will you go? Relaxing-vacation or sightseeing-vacation?

Thank you! I'm going with my family, so I'm not driving and I plan to take a lot of pictures. Uploading them however will definitely be a chore with my current connection but I will do my best.

It will mostly be a sightseeing-vacation, we are going to Nice for a few days and then in the Alps until we run out of money. Probably less then 2 weeks total

[wyqtor]

Here are 2 links of sites with pictures of the most scenic road in Romania (and, dare I say, the whole of Eastern Europe), DN 7C, better known as the Transfăgărăşan.

It is named this way because it crosses the Făgăraş Mtns. (the highest mountains in the Carpathian range, besides the Slovakian Tatras). It reaches a maximum height of 2050 m above sea level at the tunnel near Lake Bâlea.

http://www.motoromania.com/index_files/DN7C.htm
http://sabin.ro/gallery/album72

To my knowledge, it is the highest paved road in Europe outside of the Alps, Pyrenees and some other mountain ranges in Spain. All of Romania's road tunnels are located on this road, including the longest road tunnel in Romania, at Bâlea, 887 m length.

The road was inaugurated in 1974 and has a length of nearly 90 km, but its construction cost many lives as it was built during the communist regime and safety measures for workers were minimal. Still, it reminds me a lot of the Austrian Hochalpenstrasse and other high alpine roads (which are better maintained ).

[ChrisZwolle]

The highest road is in the Sierra Nevada, Southern Spain, leading up to 3400m, well over 700m higher than the highest Alpspasses.

[wyqtor]

Yeah, I had a feeling. I think the Spanish engineers could go much higher as there are few glaciers (if any), and less snow in winter, so the road could be maintained.

[radi6404]

Originally Posted by wyqtor

Here are 2 links of sites with pictures of the most scenic road in Romania (and, dare I say, the whole of Eastern Europe), DN 7C, better known as the Transfăgărăşan.

It is named this way because it crosses the Făgăraş Mtns. (the highest mountains in the Carpathian range, besides the Slovakian Tatras). It reaches a maximum height of 2050 m above sea level at the tunnel near Lake Bâlea.

http://www.motoromania.com/index_files/DN7C.htm
http://sabin.ro/gallery/album72

To my knowledge, it is the highest paved road in Europe outside of the Alps, Pyrenees and some other mountain ranges in Spain. All of Romania's road tunnels are located on this road, including the longest road tunnel in Romania, at Bâlea, 887 m length.

The road was inaugurated in 1974 and has a length of nearly 90 km, but its construction cost many lives as it was built during the communist regime and safety measures for workers were minimal. Still, it reminds me a lot of the Austrian Hochalpenstrasse and other high alpine roads (which are better maintained ).

the pictures look fucking awesome, i probably are going to visit that someday as i like mountaisn very much, but i woudn´t say the most scenic, you forgot the Rila mountain in Bulgaria, roads are going very close to high steep rockwalls etc, there´s a road to a artificial lake @ 2100m and you see the highest mountain form the road, 2925 m, the Musala, and also other steep high peaks and slopes, there are other roads (some not paved) in the Rila mountain which lead through beautiful valleys where noone has destroyed nature still since it isn´t possible to build skyslopes because the slopes are too steep.