Italian company to build section of A8 motorway connecting Romania with the Republic of Moldova

Romania’s National Company for Road Infrastructure Investment, CNIR, is preparing to sign a contract with the Italian company Itinera Spa for the construction of one of the key sections of the A8 Târgu Neamț — Iași — Ungheni motorway.

The project concerns Section 4 of the motorway, which is of strategic importance for transport connectivity between Romania and the Republic of Moldova. The project is financed under the SAFE programme and provides for the construction of infrastructure that will ensure motorway access to the future bridge over the Prut River between Romanian and Moldovan Ungheni.

According to CNIR, the contract will have a duration of 46 months. Of this period, 10 months will be allocated to the design stage, while 36 months will be dedicated to construction works.

The project provides for the construction of a 2.77-kilometre motorway segment between the Golești interchange and the bridge over the Prut River. At the same time, the entire Section 4 will have a total length of 15.5 kilometres. It will include 14 bridges and overpasses, two tunnels and two road interchanges. One of the tunnels, located around kilometre 83, will be 1,760 metres long.

CNIR emphasises that the A8 motorway is important not only for Romania’s domestic transport system, but also for the broader European integration of the region. Company representatives underline that A8 is “not just infrastructure, but a concrete opportunity through which Europe becomes closer to all Romanians, including those beyond the EU”.

The A8 motorway is regarded as one of the key transport corridors that will connect eastern Romania with the central part of the country, while also strengthening links between the European Union and the Republic of Moldova. In the future, this infrastructure could significantly reduce transport times, increase the capacity of border crossings and create new opportunities for the economic development of border areas.

Comment by the Institute of Danube Research

According to experts of the Institute of Danube Research, the implementation of the A8 motorway and the infrastructure of the bridge over the Prut River could become an important element in strengthening transport cooperation between Romania, Moldova and Ukraine. This is particularly important in the context of the reorientation of logistics flows, the development of alternative export routes and the need to deepen regional integration with the European transport network.

Vitaliy Barvinenko, Director of the Institute, believes that the construction of the A8 motorway section leading to the bridge over the Prut River has significance that goes beyond Romania’s purely national infrastructure agenda.

“The formation of a modern road corridor to Ungheni means the gradual creation of a new transport architecture on the eastern flank of the European Union. For the Republic of Moldova, this is an additional instrument of physical integration into the European space, while for Ukraine it is an important signal regarding the development of adjacent transport infrastructure in the Black Sea, Danube and Prut regions.

As we always emphasise, such projects should not be viewed in isolation, but within the broader logic of European connectivity. Motorways, bridges, border crossings, railway and port hubs form a single system of resilience, which is important both for trade and for security. Romania is effectively strengthening the role of the EU’s eastern border as a space for development, not merely as a line of separation,” Vitaliy Barvinenko stressed.