Contractor bankruptcy delays Romanian road project

The recent bankruptcy of the Austrian contractor 1332 Alpine Bau has affected a number of key projects across Europe in countries including Norway, Poland and now Romania. Following Alpine Bau’s bankruptcy, Romania’s national roads authority, 2870 CNADNR, cancelled the Austrian contractor’s contract to build a section of highway from Nadlac-Arad. So far, Alpine Bau has been paid €69.5 million to build a 16.6km section of the highway and around 85% of the work has been completed. It is not clear at this stage how the remaining 15% of the highway will be completed however. CNADNR may opt to offer this portion of the works through another tender process. Nor is it clear at this stage if Alpine Bau had been paid for work that has not so far been carried out. Completion work for the Nadlac-Arad highway stretch can only be carried out once a new contractor is appointed but no estimates of when this will be achieved are available at present.