Webuild CEO Salini: “The project is an Italian success on the Danube, and it is the same model in type and construction method to be applied over the Strait of Messina”

• A suspended bridge with a deck 1,120 metres long built by Webuild and IHI of Japan, both members of Eurolink Consortium that would build the Bridge over the Strait of Messina three times as long as the Braila 

• A sustainable project that will transform mobility in the region, enabling 7,000 vehicle crossings every day

MILAN, July 6, 2023 – The two banks of the Danube River in southeast Romania have been joined today by the new Braila Bridge, the longest in the country with its 1,975 metres in total length and the second longest suspended bridge on continental Europe. The structure, built by an international consortium led by Webuild, was inaugurated today in the presence of Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, European Union Commissioner for Transport Adina-Ioana Vălean, Italian Undersecretary of State to the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport Tullio Ferrante, Italian Ambassador to Romania Alfredo Durante Mangoni, and Webuild Chief Executive Pietro Salini.

“After the recent inauguration of two new stations of the M4 metro line in Milan in recent days, we are today proud to cut the ribbon for another project – the Braila Bridge – which will improve and simplify the everyday lives of many people and businesses in the region, bringing them closer together and fostering growth," said Pietro Salini. "After the technological challenge of Braila, we are ready with IHI to build – again with a single span – a record-breaking bridge over the Strait of Messina, putting the successes that Italian engineering has achieved in the world at the service of the country. With the length of its central span, Braila is a 1:3 scale model of the bridge that can finally unite Sicily and Calabria. These are projects that are, first and foremost, dreams that our Group today has the honour of making them a reality.” 

Commissioned by the Romanian state company Compania Nationala de Administrare a Infrastructurii Rutiere (CNAIR) on behalf of Romania’s Ministry of Infrastructure, the Braila Bridge was financed by the Operational Programme for Large Infrastructure (POIM) of the European Union. The structure is to become an important driver of the economy in southeast Romania and contribute to the development of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) to strengthen the economic, social and territorial integrity of the EU. The bridge opens a new transit route that will profoundly change mobility across the region. Crossing the Danube will no longer take 45 minutes by ferry but a mere two minutes following the inauguration of the bridge, which is set to serve 7,000 vehicles per day.  

The bridge, whose construction involved more than 1,350 people and 100 direct suppliers, has is 31.7 metres wide and two 192.4- metre-high towers. It has four lanes for vehicle traffic, emergency lanes, and cycle and pedestrian paths. It has a deck suspended approximately 40 metres above the waters of the river in order to allow the passage of medium-sized ships. It supported by two load-bearing cables formed by the interweaving of more than 18,000 steel wires. These cables weigh a total of 6,775 tonnes and have a combined length of 38,000 kilometres – slightly less than the circumference of the Earth. The cables are anchored to the two towers.

The bridge’s deck consists of 86 segments, each weighing an average of 260 tonnes, manufactured at a nearby factory run by Fincantieri of Italy. For its construction, 21,000 tonnes of steel and approximately 12,000 cubic metres of reinforced concrete were used. For its foundations, piles with a diametre of 1.8 metres were used, set at a maximum depth of 45 metres.

The Braila Bridge, tested to withstand winds of up to 270 kilometres per hour and strong seismic tremours, is the result of a collaboration with IHI, the Japanese company that also built the Akashi Strait Bridge in Japan, the second longest suspension bridge in the world. It is also part of the Eurolink Consortium, led by Webuild, which is to build the Bridge over the Strait of Messina.

Webuild has built a combined 1,018 kilometres of bridges and viaducts throughout the world. They include the Genova San Giorgio Bridge, completed in 2020 in Italy in record time; the Third Bridge over the Bosphorus in Turkey, the widest hybrid suspension bridge in the world at the time of its completion; and the Long Beach International Gateway in California, among the tallest bridges in the United States.