New Danube Bridge Hopes to Open to traffic in May Transport Minister
Bulgaria expects the second bridge linking it with Romania over the Danube river to open to traffic in May, the transport ministry in Sofia said.
"[..] the construction of the bridge should be completed in April, which means that we can expect to put the facility into operation in May", transport minister Ivaylo Moskovski said in a statement following a visit to the construction site in Vidin, some 200 km. north of Sofia.
Construction works are 98% completed and for final deadlines to be met weather conditions should be favourable and the negotiations with the Romanian side for establishing the joint company that will operate the bridge should be accelerated, Moskovski added.
The bridge linking Vidin, in northwestern Bulgaria, with Romania's Calafat on the opposite bank of the river, has four road lanes and a railway line. In October, the European Commission said that the EU provided about 106 million euro ($143.3 million) for the construction of the bridge, a project worth some 250 million euro in total.
Bulgaria and Romania are linked by a single bridge over the Danube built in the 1950s. It links Ruse, in northeastern Bulgaria, with Giurgiu in Romania.