Romania’s ‘Golden Gate’ bridge over the Danube inaugurated almost two months ago has a problem with loose bolts.
Authorities have inspected about one-third of the 100,000 bolts of the brand-new Braila bridge in eastern Romania and have found 70 loose or missing bolts, according to road authority, road authority CNAIR.
CNAIR and Italian bridge builder WeBuild decided to check the bolts after a video was posted showing a pedestrian unscrewing several bolts.
Alin Șerbănescu, a spokesperson for the road company, called it “Negligence…. Measures should be taken to tighten these screws. There’s no risk of the bridge collapsing.”
The EU-funded bridge, which opened on July 6 iw one of Europe’s largest and the country’s most important infrastructure project since communism ended in 1989. It was designed to improve road infrastructure in the undeveloped eastern part of Romania.
But it has already been hit with its fair share of problems including patches of uneven surface. Transport Minister Sorin Grindeanu and CNAIR blamed carriers who do not respect weight limits and restrictions, though they didn’t rule out a problem with the asphalt laying.
Constructor WeBuild has not yet removed the cranes from the four bridge pillars, even though since mid-July, the bridge has been closed at night during the week. The constructor has until the end of November. .
The Brăila bridge was officially inaugurated on July 6. Nicknamed Romania’s Golden Gate, it has a total length of nearly two kilometers, with a main span of 1,120 m and two side spans of about 490 m and 365 m long.
It took almost five years, to build and cost more than half a billion euros. The EU contributed 363 million euros from cohesion policy funds.
