The construction of Bulgaria’s second Danube bridge at Vidin – Calafat has been 72 percent completed, while the adjacent infrastructure leading to the facility from the Bulgarian side is at 88 percent ready, representatives of the Spanish contractor FCC announced last week. The last pillar of the bridge has been erected which is the fourth one in the navigable area of the river. It reaches a height of 44.76 metres, while at its base there are 24 structural elements impaled at a depth of 78 meters.
To protect the foundation of the pillars from colliding with ships or other heavy objects 19 pairs of safety components are to be placed, each weighing 80 to 120 tonnes, while five pairs of these elements have already been installed. At the same time the placement of segments of the superstructure of the bridge has also been completed and it has been joined with that over the non-navigable section of the river.
According to engineers, this progress gives reasons to believe that the bridge will be completed no later than the end of November this year. This will meet the extended term for completion according to the financing memorandum and the countries will not have to give back the EU funds provided for the project. The total cost of the bridge at Vidin – Calafat, together with the associated infrastructure, is EUR232 million. The European Investment Bank lent EUR70 million, a further 70 million was provided under the ISPA programme and the state budget allocates another EUR60 million. The remaining funds have been provided by KfW Bank and the French Development Agency.
Unfortunately, it may be that even after completion of the bridge, problems will continue. Several days ago the Romanian newspaper Capital reported that the construction of related infrastructure in their country is lagging far behind.
For now we can blame – not without cause – the Bulgarians for the delay the Calafat-Vidin bridge, but once completed, it will reveal the harsh reality: the road and rail infrastructure on the Romanian coast is far behind that on the Bulgarian side the publication said.
The newspaper also writes that the Bulgarian side of the bridge has been connected to a road with two lanes in one direction, while the railway is electrified. On the Romanian territory, the national road Craiova – Calafatq is still with one lane in each direction and is potholed. The railway line is non-electrified and very old, therefore the 107-kilometre distance between the two cities is takes three and half hours to take.
However, apart from the railway section leading to the Danube Bridge 2, the line Sofia – Vidin is in a really poor condition. The distance between Sofia and Vidin is about 250 kilometres takes five hours to travel.
Indeed, the section had to be renovated in the current edition of the Transport Operational Programme, but the Transport Ministry subsequently backed out of those plans because of the high cost of the project – EUR2.68 billion. In this programming period (2007-2013) what will be done is only the selection of the consultants for the preparation of the modernization project, which will absorb EUR50 million.
