Hello, I have recently visited both cities as a tourist and also stumbled upon your highway plan on the European sub. I can’t comprehend why are you planing to build the highway in the region in that particular way, from Focșani and bending south towards Brăila. I presume the master plan is to proceed with construction of another highway from Făgăraș to Focșani, crossing the Carpathians, which is not marked on the map and which would link the two cities with the Hungarian border in a relatively straight line, allowing for the quickest leave for the West possible. However, I think it would be more sensible for now to provide the fastest connection to Bucharest instead, by projecting the highway from Brăila to Buzău, where it would adjoin the existing infrastructure, right? And then, even if not, for all I have seen Brăila is practically just a poor, decrepit satellite of Galați, constituting less traffic and the distance between each of the cities and Focșani is about the same, so it would have been more rational to build the Danube bridge closer to Galați to serve it better, route the highway straight to Focșani over the bridge and only provide a separate turning for Brăila, right? It would also be more beneficial for any vehicle coming from Moldova, Ukraine and further east and constitute only a little detour for regional traffic from Dobruja. Could you provide some insight into the reasoning of the highway planners, please?
https://i.redd.it/htbcqwz3hhbg1.jpeg
Posted by Acceptable-Spell-368
25 Comments
Because geography.
I can’t really answer your question, but if you want to see the future proposed roads you can check the map at https://proinfrastructura.ro/proiecteinfrastructura.html
Make sure to check “proiecte propuse”, this will reveal planned roads. You will see that there is a proposed express highway to Buzău and also another one to the A2 motorway.
Check this website: https://proinfrastructura.ro/proiecteinfrastructura.html?zoom=6&lat=45.019&lng=25.3345 . Here you will see also the future highways/express ways which are in plan to be build. As to why. I think it’s related to political interests.
Mate, in romania, people are thankful there even are highways. Asking for them to be made a specific way is too much.
>And then, even if not, for all I have seen Brăila is practically just a poor, decrepit satellite of Galați,
Oh man… that’s going to piss off some braileni. One does not take sides in the Braila – Galati war :))
Concerning the bridge over Danube, there are a lot of technical, topological and other factors to consider when they choose the location, not just the proximity to a city.
It might be because of the rivers in that area, but I’m not very sure
in actuality, Braila has our first Golden Gate bridge crossing the Danube. It is quite a critical infrastructure project, highly used for cargo transportation from Moldova region to Dobrogea. The bridge was build in Braila because the Danube was at its thinnest than compared to Galati
As such, in the case of the map, it is not Braila that is the annex, rather Galati.
I’ve sought in the meantime a map for future planned highways and as such you will nottice a planned Expressway linking Braila, Tulcea and Constanta that will embale faster cargo by truck be delivered from nothern Romania to the sea.
link: https://businesscatalog.ro/romania-se-conecteaza-autostrazile-ca-motor-al-dezvoltarii-regionale-si-al-exporturilor/
I think it is related with the ukraine war maybe? If Russia would attack Romania the only way is a black sea desant or through the Focsani Gate which is a military strategic point of our country.
https://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poarta_Foc%C8%99anilor
In short, it is the closest link to the highway network and follows the Siret river valley (one of the biggest rivers of the country) so no natural obstacles to overcome. Maybe another express road will connect west and south of Braila with the A2 at some point but that area has very low population and thus there is little political pressure for it.
As for cutting right through to Constanța, north Dobrudja has complicated geography and I am not sure it’s worth the money and environmental damage to build a highway there.
There will also be a highway between Braila and Buzau, but it is not shown on the map.
The documentation for Braila Focsani was made faster and that s why it will be built first.
The bridge over the Danube was built near Braila because the Danube is narrower there and it has the best connection with other roads that are already built or will be built.
If you want to see a complete map of all highways that will be build, I recommend this:
https://tapusidaniel.github.io/Autostrazi_in_Romania/
Two main reasons:
-Braila and Galati are supposed to be connected in the future with Tulcea and Constanta through a single highway, I think the A4 is the official name. It would provide easy access to the 3 main ports of the country to the north regions, Transylvania and Moldova. Since you already have the A2 providing access from the south, it would’ve been redundant to make the connection from Buzau, so Focsani was chosen instead
– the counties of Buzau and Braila are some of the least densely populated in the country, so the only purpose of a highway through there would be a quicker connection between Bucharest and Galati, with no real other benefits; as such, it’s not a priority
Probably the most practical route would have been to branch of the expressway to Braila and Galati from A7 from Ramnicu Sarat (the middle between Buzau and Focsani). That would have made a quicker connection to Bucharest, but also keep the northern direction close enough. Branching from Buzau would have meant a big increase for traffic coming from Moldova.
Practical and rational reasons aside, you have to keep in mind the context of the country. Details like who owns the land a highway is constructed on (that would have to be expropriated and paid compensations for) matter and could very likely change the route of the highway, so that the money gets into specific pockets.
Galati will actually be a dead end part of the highway system. the idea is to link Focsani to Constanta via braila and the bridge (which is why it was built at braila and not galati). This will be done via DEx (Focsani-Braila-Constanta https://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drumul_expres_Br%C4%83ila%E2%80%93Tulcea%E2%80%93Constan%C8%9Ba). So the idea is to link “Autostrada moldovei” and the northern most part of the country with the black sea (the port, for commercial reasons as well as the seaside for tourism reasons). Galati will actually be linked to the highway system via braila via DEx6. and the answer to your question is because geography…
Hello Russian “friend”. why do you ask?
You’ve already answered your question, it’s for connecting with the planned future infrastructure, there is no future infrastructure regarding a direct line through Făgăraș, as that would cross the Carpathians and cost tens of billions of euros. Having two highways that cross the Carpathians currently in works is already science fiction for us (Sibiu – Pitești and the one linking West to East). There is not going to be a direct line for the foreseeable future. Still better than nothing for whomever lives in both cities!
noone asked us here on reddit
The question OP is asking is why the expressway isn’t planned from Braila to Buzau but rather to Foscani. I hope I understood that correctly.
Apart from the military strategic points already made by two other responders, I guess the simple answer is that A7 was built with the intent of helping transport to rebuild Ukraine. Many shipments will come from Galati (there’s a large steel factory there) and across the Braila bridge from Constanta harbor towards Suceava/Siret border town. If the expressway would have been built towards Buzau it would have added maybe 30-40 kms extra to the trip towards the Northern border. The link with Focsani is shorter and hence, faster.
I don’t believe the main purpose of the expressway Braila – A7 is to connect the SE Moldavian region to Bucharest.
I mean honeatly connecting it via buzau seems more impractical to me. The reason it is connected via focsani is because that is the shortest possible distance between braila/galati and the rest of the highway network. What you are proposing with the buzau connection would essentially double the length(and thus the cost) of the highway to shave off like 20 minutea of travel time to Bucharest while adding a significant detour for anyone trying to go to/from the rest of moldavia towards galati.
Another caveat to bear in mind is that it may appear that the shape of the braila/galati expressway, which runs somewhat parralel to the A7, would hint towards a parralel roadway being built from galati to iasi. However, the terrain is annoying and the population in the eastern half of moldavia is way too low to justify such a project, so the A7 has to act as a spinal cord for the entire region. Connecting galati via focsani then allows for better connectivity with all the cities up north such as Iasi and Bacau, at the expense of a slightly longer trip to Bucharest, which is fair imo.
In terms of the planned cross-carpathian highway. The map you attached only contains highways that are either currently being actually built or highways that are currently being auctioned for construction, none of the planned highways show up there. Either way, while it would be incredibly convenient to have a straight east-west line from fagaras-brasov to focsani, that is very unlikely to happen due to the region’s geography. The terrain is very rugged and mountanous with no natural waterways creating some buildable valleys like between brasov and ploiesti for instance. This is why there isn’t a single road connecting brasov and focsani in a straight line, not even like some shitty dirt road, let alone a highway. The government’s current plans for the area are a highway from fagaras to brasov which will then arch northeast to bacau following the oituz mountain pass, which is the main natural chokepoint that really allows for connectivity between transylvania and moldavia. While it is definitely an annoying detour, given the region’s geography it’s our best bet sadly. So considering that the connection to transylvania will be via bacau you can argue that the focsani connection makes travel to transylvania more convenient (unless the ploiesti-brasov highway will be built but we’ve been waiting for that for over 30 fucking years at this point and the government straight up removed it from its plans entirely for the time being)
Really glad to see a foreigner so interested in romanian infrastructure and I hope this cleared things up 🙂
* The bridge near Braila probably there because the Danube shore near Galati was already ocupied by heavy industry so the bridge wouldn’t have been really close to Galati anyway. Plus the political influence to build it was coming from Braila (maybe this was the main argument). Maybe the soil was better in Braila even if i dont imagine big differences in such small area
* The main problem is not connecting Braila, Galati, Tulcea to Bucharest or the west but to connect Constanta(the main port) to north and east of the country. Most of Muntenia (Wallachia/South Romania) and Transilvania is already connected to to Constanta via A1-A0-A2 (plus whatever branhces there are)
* At some point Braila-Slobozia-A2 will be constructed but i can tell you dozens of better investments before that. That road is decent, not ideal obviously but it does the job for the current traffic. Plus A2 is already near its capacity so bringing even more traffic to it it’s not a smart idea
* The motorway from Fagaras will continue to Bacau (actually a little bit south where you can see that cyan “2026” south of Bacau). Not completed sooner than 2035. Maybe sooner for Onesti-A7 and Brasov-Tg Secuiesc. These are flat-terrain (maybe hilly not flat but fore sure not mountains) so easier and faster to be built. As things are now this connection is top 3 most important not yet drawn on map (aka started). Other contenders are Brasov-Bucuresti and Lugoj-Craiova/Calafat.
* A direct motorway from Brasov to Focsani or Buzau will never be built because those are really hard mountain passes and the demand it’s just not here. Look at the Alpes or Pyrenees. Not every single 2 cities on either side are connected, just some main connections. Brasov-Buzau needs just one 2-3 km tunnel at most and maybe some very small cut-and-cover ones after Oituz.
* The flow of traffic is low enough for Braila-Buzau and Focsani-Brasov so such highways are not necessary. Maybe by 2050 when there’s really nothing left to be built we’ll do Onesti (from A13) to Adjud (to A7) so Brasov-Focsani would be 100% motorway via A13 and A7
* Do not consider Focsani-Braila has nothing but advantages. It’s correct to assume for some parts of the country the connection between Buzau and Braila would have been more helpful but overall the optimal solution is close to this one chosen.
* Maybe authorities expect (or were told by EU) that the Ukraine-Constanta traffic will grow massively once reconstruction begin. Or maybe they prepare for the worst case scenario (unlikely now tbh) where Ukraine loses all sea access and then Constanta became the closest available big port but there’s so many IFs
* “Brăila is practically just a poor, decrepit satellite of Galați”. This is what i call a death wish
Because you don’t build infrastructure just for the present conditions, but for the future also…
That means that a better connection with Transylvania is much better than one with Bucharest.
And I think it has something to do with Focșani Gate also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foc%C8%99ani_Gate?wprov=sfti1#History
You would need a road to deploy troops there in case you are attacked.
Are you trying to set a civil war between the most notorious two rival cities in Romania?
They wanna link Focsani-Galati-Braila-Tulcea-Constanta, thats why. It’s a critical path from the Constanta’s harbor through the northern border with Ukraine and further up to Poland an so on.
Bold of you so assume we are going by a certain logic. It’s more about what benefits who from a personal perspective, and less about logic.
Heck, have you seen out mighty highway in Brasov?
Braila is “just a poor, decrepit satellite of Galati”. As someone from Galati, I love this quote 🙂 Even a visiting foreigner noticed immediately.