Romania’s Neverending Quest for Highways

Romania is the eighth-largest country in the European Union, yet its 931-kilometer highway network is one of the smallest, meaning a percentage of 5,3 of the national road length. For 30 years now, politicians have promised to fix things and build thousands of kilometers of highways a year. Little has changed, though.

According to the recent press release on the subject issued by the National Institute of Statistics, Romania has 931 kilometers of highway at the end of 2021, accounting for 5.3 percent of the country’s total road length.

The overall length of public roads is 86,199 kilometers, with 17,530 kilometers (20.3%) being national roads, 35,096 kilometers (40.7%) being county roads, and 33,573 kilometers (39.5%) being community roads. The structure of the public road network recorded: 47.1% (40571 km) of modernized roads, with asphalt pavements of heavy and medium types accounting for 93.7% of updated roads, 24.5% (21112 km) of light paved roads, and 28.4% (24516 km) paved and dirt roads.

Moreover, the service life of over a third of Romania’s renovated highways had expired by the end of 2021.

Besides, Romania cannot be proud of its security roads either. Romania recorded the highest road fatality in Europe in 2021 because most roads are in poor condition.

Suppose you look back at the last decades. In that case, Romania will not be able to compare with any European country in terms of the number of highways or the level of modernization of the existing roads due to the slow construction process and the lack of funds for this segment.

The years are passing, and the country’s infrastructure remains the same. No wonder investors started avoiding Romania, and the Romanians working abroad have become the biggest ‘foreign’ investors in an economy already in crisis.