In the last years, Transportation ministers have indulged themselves in endless negotiations with the American company Bechtel, to hide their lack of solutions to the issue of the Transilvania motorway. No less than five of the eight motorway segments, comprising 254 km out of a total 415 km, should have been completed now, as provided by contract, reads the Romania Libera newspaper. Under the initial schedule, the whole Tg. Mures-Bors segment should have been ready this year, followed by the remaining three segments, between Brasov and Tg. Mures in 2013.
Now, seven years after the start of the project, works are way behind schedule: only 54 km have been completed, between Campia Turzii and Gilau, and the construction of the Suplacu de Barcau-Bors segment has started. This means that only 17 pc of works have been completed, against a planned 80 pc (254 km finalised and 161 km built 50 pc). However, Bechtel fares better when it comes to the money it received from the Romanian state. According to the investment file provided by the state budget, Bechtel and its Turkish partners of Enka received RON 5.13 bln, or 40 pc of the total sum of RON 12.75 bln.
The Romanian side stands minimum chances of success in the negotiations with the US-based company, which has no reason to drop such a profitable contract. Doing nothing earns Bechtel more money than actually doing its job, a former Transport Ministry official explained. The only solution for the Romanian side would be to terminate the contract and award it in another bid, but no minister has the courage to do it.
