site.btaNew Bulgaria-Romania Bridges: How Many, Where Exactly, and When?

The expected construction of more bridges over the Danube River between Bulgaria and Romania was brought back to the attention of the Bulgarian public almost as soon as the present government took office in December 2021.

Politicians and experts agree that the building of new bridges linking Bulgaria and Romania in addition to the two existing ones will enhance Europe's connectivity. At a Three Seas Initiative Transport Conference in Sofia on June 8, 2021, speakers rallied around the view that new Danube bridges and other infrastructure along the north-south axis are essential for transport connectivity and business development in Central and Eastern Europe.

Danube Bridges 1 and 2

Europe's second-longest river after the Volga forms three-quarters of Bulgaria's border with its only northern neighbour, Romania. The 470-km-long Bulgarian sector of the river is in its lower reaches. The sector ranges between 500 m and 1,500 m in width.

The first Danube bridge between Bulgaria and Romania was designed and built by the Soviets and inaugurated in 1954. It connects the cities of Ruse and Giurgiu and its total length is 2.2 km. Originally named Friendship Bridge, it is known nowadays as Danube Bridge 1 (or simply Danube Bridge). It is a steel truss bridge consisting of two decks, the upper one carrying a two-lane roadway and the lower one a single-track railway. Sidewalks for pedestrians are also included. The central part of the bridge (85 m long) is mobile and can be lifted to allow passage of oversized boats.

Danube Bridge 2 (New Europe Bridge) links Vidin in Bulgaria and Calafat in Romania. Construction started in 2007, when the two neighbours joined the European Union, and ended in 2013. This extradosed bridge, built by a Spanish company, is 2 km in total length. It carries four lanes of roadway, a single-track railway and a combined bicycle path/pedestrian walkway.

Besides the two bridges, the Bulgarian and Romanian banks of the Danube River are also connected by three ferry services, at Oryahovo/Bechet, Nikopol/ Turnu Magurele and Svishtov/ Zimnicea. A fourth ferry service will be launched between Ruse and Giurgiu under an agreement signed in the presence of Prime Ministers Kiril Petkov and Nicolae Ciuca in Bucharest on April 29, 2022.

How many more?

On January 4, 2022, Finance Minister Asen Vasilev unveiled a BGN 12 billion infrastructure investment package for the next four years. He said part of the money will be used to finance the construction of four or five new Danube bridges between Bulgaria and Romania.

Prime Minister Kiril Petkov confirmed the plan. After meeting with his Romanian counterpart Nicolae Ciuca in Bucharest on April 29, 2022, Petkov said that five more bridges will be built between the two countries.

Under a transport connectivity memorandum between Bulgaria and Romania, signed on March 29, 2019, the two countries would choose one of five possible sites for a future bridge: at Oryahovo/Bechet, Nikopol/ Turnu Magurele, Svishtov/ Zimnicea, Ruse/Giurgiu (alongside Danube Bridge 1), or Silistra/Calarasi.

On June 6, 2022, Transport Ministers Nikolai Sabev of Bulgaria and Sorin Grindeanu of Romania agreed that feasibility studies for new Danube bridges will begin simultaneously at all five sites named in the 2019 memorandum. The idea about five simultaneous studies had been favoured by Bulgaria, and it took the country some time to persuade its northern neighbour to embrace this approach, rather than initially going for just one study at one of the contemplated locations. This transpired from an interview which Sabev granted the 24 Chasa daily on the eve of the Sabev- Grindeanu meeting in Bucharest.

Where exactly?

The possibility to build another bridge at Ruse/Giurgiu alongside Danube Bridge 1 has been discussed for years. According to an analysis published on Capital.bg on January 29, 2022, Danube Bridge 1 is so outdated that it cannot take the heavy traffic. On February 8, 2022 news media quoted Bulgaria's Regional Development and Public Works Minister Grozdan Karadjov as saying that the facility will be overhauled between 2022 and 2023.

With a population of 143,000 (March 2022 estimate), Ruse is Bulgaria's fifth-largest city and the country's most populous settlement on the Danube. It is situated on Pan-European Transport Corridor IX, which runs from Finland to Greece and adds to the city's potential as a transport hub, thus increasing its chances of obtaining EU funding for infrastructure.

Out of all Bulgarian ports on the Danube, Ruse is closest to Romania's capital and largest city Bucharest, an important consideration from the point of view of trade flows. In 2017, the government of the then Bulgarian prime minister Boyko Borissov announced plans to build an expressway between Ruse and Veliko Trunovo and a tunnel through the Balkan Range. (The tunnel project finally got underway after contracts were signed on June 8, 2022.) This obviously makes Ruse an even more attractive location for a new bridge.

On the downside, critics have noted that building another bridge at Ruse/Giurgiu will leave 400 km of the river's length without a single bridge.

According to unofficial information, the Romanians insist that the third bridge between the two countries should be at Oryahovo/Bechet, experts say.

Banker.bg recalls that back in 2007 potential investors showed interest in building bridges at Oryahovo/Bechet and Silistra/Calarasi. Romania's national development strategy names seven possible locations for future Danube bridges, some of which will be inland in Romania, not on the border with Bulgaria, the website recalls in a story dated March 29, 2019.

Covering the June 6, 2022 meeting between Transport Ministers Nikolai Sabev and Sorin Grindeanu, Dunavmost.com says that Romania insists on picking Svishtov/Zimnicea as the site for a third bridge, an option which, it says, is also favoured by Austria. According to the website, the Romanians are opposed to the Ruse/Giurgiu option, arguing that it is unadvisable for all the traffic to go along a single route, the more so because the main destination in this case is Russia.

When?

In January 2022, Regional Development and Public Works Minister Grozdan Karadjov said that the most his government can do within its four-year term is start the building of one or more bridges, each of which will take at least six years to complete, provided that the contracts are not challenged in court.

Of the two existing bridges, the older one was built in a little over two years (1952-1954), and the newer one, in six years (2007-2013).

According to Transport Minister Nikolai Sabev, a concession contract can accelerate the building of a bridge if the concession period includes the building phase. In this case, the contractor will have an interest in completing the bridge as early as possible, because this will allow it to start earning revenue sooner.

Prime Minister Kiril Petkov said recently that it is important for Bulgaria and Romania to be good neighbours and partners. Building bridges over the Danube River obviously helps. The feasibility studies on which Sofia and Bucharest have agreed are expected to show what comes next in the bridge saga.