Delays and postponements of the tender for the contract for the design and implementation of the Tirgu Mures – Merkur Nirazului section, part of the A8 “Unirii” Tirgu Mures – Iasi highway, increase the risk that the funding provided by the PNRR will be lost, Moldova Vrea Autostradă Association warns.

“The main risk is the loss of funding for the A8 motorway section,” the Vrea Autostradă Association of Moldova (MVA) said in a public warning.

• “We are surprised to observe the new, rationally inexplicable postponement of the deadline for the award of the tender for section 1 Tirgu-Mureş-Mierkurya-Niražului, the lot included for financing from the PNRR and the implementation of which must be completed by the summer of 2026.
• Although the initial deadline for the evaluation of the qualification, technical and financial evaluation of the proposal was May 24, 2023, it was later moved to September, then to October 19, 2023, so now we have a new deadline of November 17, 2023,” the message reads. to MVA.

The association says it has publicly warned both CNAIR and the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure that “the window of opportunity to complete the Design + Execution phase for the western section, representing 24.4 km of expressway, is very narrow in a no-bid scenario.”

According to the organization, there is already a delay of about 6 months at the tender stage, and the duration of the actual contract after it is signed and the order to start work will be 30 months. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs says that under these conditions, in order not to miss the 2026 deadline, which is critical for financing through the PNRR, “the implementation contract must be signed no later than 12/31/2023!!!”.

• “We also do not understand the apathy and lack of access to meetings organized by CNAIR representatives together with designers, local authorities, civil society and parliamentarians interested in major infrastructure projects in the region of Moldova, and which have been repeatedly postponed in recent months. The situation is absolutely unsatisfactory, in general, all projects in this region have significant delays, each such meeting during the course of work aims to identify potential causes of delay and solve them in time, to stimulate and support designers in meeting contractual deadlines, and to make this process transparent in order to correctly informing and correlating with the existing reality of the general public”, says the MBA.

End sections of A8 seized at PNRR put up for auction for almost a year / UMB builds Moldovan end

The first two sections of the “Uniriy” highway A8 Tg. Mures – Iasi – Ungheni have been put up for auction since the end of last year. These are two sections:

• Tirgu Mures – Tirgu Neamts Motorway, Section I: Tirgu Mures – Merkur Nirajului and A3 Motorway Connection – 24.4 km (including 2.4 km connecting road) (See proposals submitted)
• Tirgu Mures – Tirgu Neamts highway, section III: Legin – Tirgu Neamts – 29.91 km. (See submitted proposals here)

Of the two sections, only one in Moldova, from Legin to Moca (DN2) was concluded with the Romanians from UMB – 29.9 km for approximately 1.56 billion lei.

A8 “Unirii” highway – connecting Moldova with Transylvania and a race against time for funding for the PNRR

The A8 “Unirii” motorway is almost 320 km from Tirgu Mures (junction with A3) to Iasi and Ungeni, on the border with the Republic of Moldova.

The sections from Tirgu Mures to Merkur Nirajului (approx. 25 km) and from Legin to Tirgu Neamts and to Moca/DN2 (approx. 30 km) are financed by the PNRR, a short-term plan developed by the EU for post-pandemic restart. Mandatory condition: implementation of projects by 2026.

On the “medium-mountainous” site, the finalization of the feasibility study began back in 2019, and only now, recently, the technical and economic indicators were completed and set (in total, it will cost 6.4 billion euros), a tender was held. design and construction is expected by the end of the year.

For the Moțca/DN2 – Iasi – Ungen section, field studies were only carried out this year after the project was blocked for more than a year at the route selection stage.

Motorway A8 “Unirii” – The parameters of the mountain section have been approved: 159 km, 47 tunnels, 437 bridges / Total cost: 6.4 billion euros