May 13 (SeeNews) - Italian industrial construction group Webuild said on Friday it has won a 1 billion euro ($1.04 billion) contract as leader of a consortium which will build a section of the Sibiu-Pitesti highway in Romania.
Commissioned by Romania's road infrastructure company CNAIR on behalf of the transport and infrastructure ministry, the work on Lot 3 of the highway will be done by a consortium comprising Webuild with a 90% stake and local partner Tancrad with 10%, the Italian group said in a press release. .
The contract will be 85% financed by EU funds and the remaining 15% by state funds. The construction of the section will create more than 40,000 jobs.
The awarding of the contract followed an international bidding process involving construction companies from Austria, Italy, Romania, Spain and Turkey, Webuild said.
In addition to the tunnel, bridges and viaducts, Lot 3 includes the design and construction of more than 23 km of a double-lane highway, two interchanges at Valeni and Cornetu, 18 km of consolidation works, the construction of a maintenance and control centre, and work to preserve the environment. There will also be an animal crossing at Olt river, which will help reduce traffic congestion between Cornetu and Tigveni by proving an alternative route to national roads.
Webuild is already working on Lot 5 of the Sibiu-Pitesti highway, located 10 km from Lot 3. Once the five sections under construction are completed, the Sibiu-Pitesti highway will be more than 122 km long, connecting central and western Romania to Europe’s highway network as part of the Rhine-Danube Corridor of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T).
Webuild SpA is an Italian industrial group specialised in the construction and civil engineering business headquartered in Milan. The group employs more than 80,000 in 100 countries. The group has built over 2,400 km of tunnels and 80,300 km of roads and highways across the globe and is working on multiple projects for the TEN-T.
($= 0.9584 euro)