The Calafat Vidin Bridge, open for circulation
The Calafat-Vidin bridge, the second largest bridge between Romania and Bulgaria, on Friday became part of the European road circuit.
Articol de Radio România Internaţional, 14 Iunie 2013, 19:13
After 60 years since the inauguration of the first bridge over the Danube between Romania and Bulgaria, the second one is open for circulation starting Friday.
Although the idea of a bridge linking the Romanian town of Calafat to the Bulgarian town of Vidin goes back to 1925, it was only in 2000 that Bucharest and Sofia signed an agreement on the construction proper.
7 years passed by before the works started, and the project was awarded to a Spanish construction company.
The total investment exceeds 220 million Euros, money that comes from the EU, the European Investment Bank, the French Development Agency and the German Credit Institution for Reconstruction.
Built on a segment of the Danube where the river is 1 thousand 3 hundred meters wide, the bridge is approximately 2 kilometers long, has 4 lanes, a railroad, two sidewalks and a bike lane. It is the longest such construction over the Danube.
Crossing it on this bridge will be faster and cheaper than with the ferryboat.
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