Suspended bridge to be  second longest in Continental Europe

• Work on entire project 72% complete

• Bridge to service up to 7,000 vehicles a day, offering faster alternative to ferry crossings

MILAN, September 30, 2022 – The Braila Bridge in Romania, the second longest suspension bridge in continental Europe being built by Webuild in an international joint-venture, will be completed ahead of schedule by the end of the year. Nine kilometres of roadworks connected to the bridge will also soon be delivered. Webuild confirms this commitment on condition that the area where 23 kilometres of more roadwork will be developed is handed over to the joint-venture, along with an agreement on variations to the project. Work on the entire project, which has proven to be as challenging as it has been innovative, has reached 72% completion.

The new bridge, built with Japanese partner IHI Infrastructure Systems Co Ltd, will connect both sides of the Danube River in the Galati-Braila region, drastically reducing crossing times for 7,000 vehicles every day and avoiding the use of a ferry.

The complex project saw the raising of the bridge’s steel deck this summer, one of the most challenging phases. More than 250 workers and technicians were involved in installing 86 sections of the deck, each weighing 260 tonnes. They developed a specific method to raise and set each one. A lifting beam near the factory where the sections were made placed them on barges, which then travelled 7 kilometres along the Danube. Once they arrived under the bridge, the sections were lifted to their final position on permanent hangers.  

Earlier in the year, workers raised and set in place the bridge’s two supporting cables created by the intertwining of more than 18,000 steel fibres (more than 9,000 for each cable). Their combined weight is 6,775 tonnes. 

Commissioned by state company CNAIR on behalf of Romania’s Ministry of Infrastructure, the project is being financed by the Operational Programme for Large Infrastructure (POIM). It is 1,975 metres long with a 1,120-metre main deck. It will have four lanes, an emergency lane, and cycling and pedestrian paths. There is an access viaduct 90 metres long on each side, a 220-metre viaduct to cross over the Braila-Galati railway and 21 kilometres of new road network.

Webuild’s track record includes the construction of approximately 1,000 kilometres of bridges and viaducts, equivalent to the distance between Paris and Berlin. Among them some of the most challenging projects that have come to represent the Group’s innovative approach to construction, including the Genova San Giorgio Bridge in Italy, which was completed in a little more than a year as well as the Third Bridge over the Bosphorus River in Turkey.