Three more days for tests and 72 hours to compile their results are needed before the Basarab flyover in Bucharest can be opened, according to Sorin Oprescu, the Bucharest general mayor. According to him, the Basarab flyover’s opening is "a matter of hours and days."

During the tests, the flyover will be loaded with weights, in different situations, and vertical and horizontal movement measurements are also made, so as to ensure the safety of the passage. In the final phase, the flyover will be loaded with a maximum weight of 1,500 tonnes, that is 13 trams and 24 trucks loaded with 44 tons which will pass on it.

The Director of the National Institute for Earth Physics, Gheorghe Marmureanu, said that, as it was built, the Basarab flyover can resits during an earthquake of 7.5 degrees on the Richter scale.

The Basarab flyover connects the Nicolae Titulescu and Vasile Milea boulevards, in the vicinity of the North Railway station.Works on the flyover started in 2006 and were conducted by construction companies Astaldi and FCC. The project’s cost reached EUR 160 million.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com