On 10 July 2024 the repair of the Danube Bridge at Ruse-Giurgiu will start

Alex Turcu, Prima TV Romania, 1 July 2024

The repair of the Danube Bridge at Ruse and Giurgiu begins. It will last 2 years. It is planned that traffic on the bridge will be in one lane during the work periods.

This report was made possible with the support of the Friendship Bridge blog and is reprinted with the permission of Prima TV.

Prima TV presenter:

The Bulgarian-Romanian border crossing was blocked for nearly two hours today due to a fire on the Friendship Bridge connecting Giurgiu and Ruse. A car caught fire while travelling on the bridge towards Bulgaria.

Three people inside noticed smoke coming from under the dashboard of the vehicle. They stopped the car and got out in time. Other drivers who were nearby intervened with their fire extinguishers. Firefighters from Giurgiu with a fire engine and a SMURD ambulance together with a fire brigade from Ruse eventually extinguished the flames. Preliminary investigations indicate that the fire started in the electrical part of the vehicle.

In a few days, work will begin on the Bulgarian side of the Friendship Bridge. This means that Romanians going on holiday by car should prepare their journey carefully. Most of the time traffic will be restricted and will be in one lane.

Romanian drivers:

Look at the trucks. You are between two EU countries. They wait for 12, 14, 16 hours. God has found us here in this corner of Europe. We are two smart nations.

I don’t go this route very often. It’s our first time here. If this happens (traffic bottleneck due to repairs – ed.), it will be a disaster.

They have to do it. The situation now is bad.

Alex Turcu, Prima TV reporter:
Even if the work has not started, we are still standing on the bridge. It’s been more than 30 minutes since we paid the toll to cross it, and we’re waiting to get to the Bulgarian side. This could be the new reality at the Giurgiu-Ruse border crossing, one of the busiest in Romania. Hundreds of thousands of Romanians pass through here every summer during their holidays in Bulgaria, Turkey and Greece.

Dragomir Draganov, local governor of Ruse Region:

The reconstruction of the bridge will start on 9 or 10 July 2024 and will take 730 days.

Announcer:

Work on the Bulgarian side of the Friendship Bridge will be divided into six lots for a total distance of 1,100 meters. Authorities say the concrete slabs and asphalt need to be replaced because of cracks and unevenness. The work will cost the Bulgarian authorities BGN 45 million, which is almost EUR 23 million. It could cost Romanian tourists a few dozen extra minutes at the border.

Dragomir Draganov, local governor of Ruse region:

There are two streams of car traffic on the Friendship Bridge. The first one is trucks. 1400 trucks a day cross the border in one direction. The second flow is of cars. 3 000 cars a day cross the border. On weekends and holidays the traffic is twice as high. We have proposed that tourists from Romania and Bulgaria cross the border as in a small Schengen, i.e. almost without border controls. The idea is to open counters only for Romanians and Bulgarians so that they can cross the border more quickly.

Narrator:

During the renovations, traffic will alternate in one lane and will be controlled by traffic lights.

Alex Turcu:

In order to avoid traffic being blocked at the border as it is now, the Romanian Government has decided to open a new border crossing. It will be opened in the coming weeks and trucks will be able to cross the Danube by ferry. The Bulgarian authorities hope that at least 200 trucks will use this border crossing every day.

Narrator:

The new border crossing point is called ‘Mocanașu’ and will be officially opened once the Romanian and Bulgarian authorities synchronise the work of the border police and customs. The authorities hope to run the ferry every 30 minutes. This should be done by mid-July so that the Friendship Bridge is not clogged with trucks. The waiting time should not increase too much, as the border area between Giurgiu and Ruse is an important economic hub for transport, tourists and businesses in the region.

Vladimir Mitev:

There is also a Bulgarian-Romanian Chamber of Commerce based in Ruse, which brings together businesses from Romania and Bulgaria that are cross-border or have an interest in the other country.

Announcer:

Border authorities advise Romanian tourists to use other border crossings on their way to their holidays.

Photo: The Bridge of Friendship (source: YouTube)

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