“Bulgaria and Romania will build another bridge over the Danube, near Ruse,” Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov said on September 10th. According to him, the possibility of building the new bridge over the Danube River would be discussed in a joint meeting of the Romanian and Bulgarian governments scheduled for October.
Boyko Borisov said the new bridge could be built without the need for financial support from the Bulgarian and Romanian governments, however, he did not clearly indicate a source of funding.
The Bulgarian Prime Minister said the new bridge will have a positive economic impact on the city of Ruse.
The initiative to build the third bridge belongs, in fact, to the Governor of the Ruse region, Galin Grigorov and comes as a response to the increasing role of the Paneuropean Corridors 7 and 9, on the increasing of the trade between Romania and Bulgaria, but also on the congestion of traffic on the current Giurgiu – Ruse bridge.
The third bridge could have a length of 3 kilometers. If it is built, it will be located east of the existing one, near Ruse, close to the Bulgarian town of Marten.
There are two possibilities for building the bridge, the first one considering the construction of a road bridge exclusively and the second one, building the bridge for both road and rail traffic.
The decision will be taken at the October meeting when both countries’ prime ministers, transport ministers, European commissioners and representatives of local authorities are expected to attend.
Romania and Bulgaria are currently connected by two bridges across the Danube: the Giurgiu-Ruse bridge, inaugurated in 1954 and the Calafat (Romania) – Vidin (Bulgaria) bridge, inaugurated in 2013. The latter, with the official name New Europe Bridge, was built for combined transport, road and rail.
Photo: rail line on the New Europe Bridge (between Calafat and Vidin)
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