The new Bucharest-Ploiesti highway in Romania will be open for traffic Saturday, August 1st- a one month delay on the previous date, according to the Minister of Transport Ovidiu Silaghi

Silaghi said that the existing problems will be fixed within a month. "In a month, we hope to solve the issues, especially traffic safety, (...) so we can open the road," said the Minister.

Silaghi made a visit to the A3 highway Bucharest - Ploiesti on Thursday at the request of Prime Minister Victor Ponta, to check  progress. The highway was supposed to be inaugurated by bikers this week-end, before the previous official July 1 opening date.

The minister said that all the construction companies working on the project will be penalized. "We want to make the entire highway functional; it's no good if just a part is ready. Drive out of nowhere to nowhere? To come and drive our cars for 20 kilometers?”said the minister.

Silaghi said that "unfortunately for constructors, penalties are still accumulating, amounting to RON 75,000 per day- or some EUR 16,800. On June 22 they exceeded RON 14 million – the equivalent of some EUR 3.1 million.

The original date for finalizing the highway was in late 2010, but has since been delayed several times.

Work on highway Bucharest-Ploiesti is divided into two sectors, respectively Bucharest-Moara Vlasiei, where work is being carried out by Italian consortium Impressa Pizzarotti / Tirrena Scavi, and Moara Vlasiei-Ploiesti, built by Spedition UMB / Pa & Co International / Euroconstruct '98 / Com-axis. The total value of the work is EUR 450 million.

Ioana Toader, ioana.toader@romania-insider.com