In brief
- The Brașov-Făgăraș Motorway now has an approved price: 9,351,780,000 lei including VAT, that is, 9.35 billion lei for 49.75 km. At the exchange rate written in the annex, 1 euro = 5.0953 lei, the sum comes to 1.84 billion euros. Divided by the length, it works out at 188.0 million lei, that is, 36.9 million euros per kilometre, a calculation that does not appear in the act.
- The high cost has a physical explanation, written in the same annex: 46 bridges, overpasses and viaducts, plus 6 tunnels and cut-and-cover structures. Fifty-two structures over 49.75 km means one every 957 metres. Construction and assembly take 7.94 billion lei, that is, 84.92% of the value, a share far above that of the railway approved on the same day.
- Execution is set at 36 months, in three perfectly equal instalments, and the decision does not say when the period starts running. The money comes from the Transport Programme 2021-2027 and from the State budget, through the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, without showing how much each source gives. The National Company for Road Infrastructure Administration S.A. answers for it. Those concerned are drivers on the Brașov-Sibiu route and landowners in Brașov county, the only one the route crosses.
Published: Official Gazette of Romania, Part I, no. 818 of 25 September 2026, page 8
In force from: from publication, 25 September 2026, because Article 12(3) of Law no. 24/2000 on legislative drafting rules provides that normative acts, with the exception of laws and ordinances, enter into force on the date of publication in the Official Gazette of Romania (Monitorul Oficial) unless they themselves lay down a later date, and this decision does not
The Government has approved the figures within which the Brașov-Făgăraș Motorway can be built: 9,351,780,000 lei including VAT for 49.75 km, in 36 months. It is the first decision on indicators for this objective, and the route stays entirely within Brașov county. The western end of the same corridor already has a history in the Official Gazette of Romania: for the Sibiu-Făgăraș Motorway, the Government had started expropriations at Avrig in July 2026, in order to move the utility networks off the corridor. The two segments meet at Făgăraș.
The annex gives the total value, the construction and assembly part, the phasing over three years, the duration and eight categories of capacity. It does not give the equivalent in euros, even though it states the exchange rate: 1 euro = 5.0953 lei, in prices as at 27 February 2026. Doing the division, the total value is 1.84 billion euros, and construction and assembly, 7,941,902,000 lei, come to 1.56 billion euros. Set against the 49.75 km, the cost works out at 188.0 million lei or 36.9 million euros per kilometre.
The list of capacities explains part of the price. Over the 49.75 km, 46 bridges, overpasses and viaducts and 6 tunnel or cut-and-cover structures are provided for, 52 in all, that is, one every 957 metres. The platform is 26.00 m wide. To these are added one set of service areas in both directions, one set of lay-bys, a maintenance and coordination centre and a single interchange over the whole length.
The phasing is a division by three, not a work programme: 3,117,260,000 lei in each of the three years, a sum that matches the total exactly. The construction and assembly part is split in the same way, 2,647,301,000 lei in the first two years and 2,647,300,000 in the third, the last line absorbing the rounding. From the 36 months comes an average pace of 259.8 million lei per month and of 1.38 km of motorway built each month. What is written nowhere is the moment from which the period is counted: neither publication, nor the signature of a contract, nor any order to start works, and years I, II and III in the annex are not calendar years.
In the same issue of the Official Gazette of Romania, one page earlier, the Government approved the technical and economic indicators for the modernisation of the Apahida-Suceava railway line, subsection Ilva Mică-Pojorâta: 10.49 billion lei for 106.82 km. Both acts bear the date of 24 September 2026, the same duration of 36 months and the same source of money. The difference in unit price is 1.91 times in favour of the railway, 98.2 million lei per kilometre against 188.0. Together, the two decisions commit 19.84 billion lei, almost 3.9 billion euros, on 156.57 km of infrastructure.
What it changes in practice
The first effect is a spending ceiling. Indicators approved by government decision, on the basis of Article 42(1)(a) of Law no. 500/2002 on public finance, are the limit within which the authorising officer may contract and pay. The sum of 9,351,780,000 lei is a threshold, not an estimate: it cannot be crossed without a new decision, just as the 49.75 km and the 52 structures become the quantity against which every execution contract is measured.
The second effect is procedural. Without approved indicators, the objective cannot receive annual amounts in the public investment programme and cannot be put out to tender for execution. The decision therefore opens the stage in which the National Company for Road Infrastructure Administration S.A. can contract the works, not the stage in which the machines move onto the ground.
The third effect concerns liability, and the wording is narrow. Article 3 makes the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, through the road company, answerable for the way the sums in the annex are used. Not for keeping to the 36 months and not for delivering the 52 structures, but for the money spent.
The fourth effect is visible on the ground. The site lies wholly in Brașov county, so the expropriations and permits that will follow concern a single county council and a single construction inspectorate, unlike projects that cross several counties. On the other hand, a single interchange over 49.75 km means that access to the motorway for the localities along the route is settled somewhere other than in this act.
The fifth effect is budgetary and tempers all the rest. The money is given within the limits of the amounts approved annually for this purpose, so each of the three instalments of 3,117,260,000 lei depends on the budget law of the year in question. Approving the indicators creates no firm multiannual commitment and guarantees no payment.
What has changed compared with the previous situation
For this objective there is no earlier version. A search of the legislation database returns no decision that previously approved the indicators of the Brașov-Făgăraș Motorway, so there is no old value against which to measure an update. What has changed is the state of the Sibiu-Brașov corridor: the segment towards Sibiu was already at the expropriation stage in July 2026, and the segment towards Brașov now acquires an approved value.
The useful comparison is with the last road objectives whose indicators the Government approved. On 21 September 2026, four days earlier, the Buzău orbital road towards the A7, sections 2, 3 and 4, received 1.095 billion lei for 13.079 km, that is, 83.7 million lei per kilometre, with 24 months of execution and three structures. The Brașov-Făgăraș Motorway costs 188.0 million lei per kilometre, 2.25 times more, and the explanation can be read straight off the annex: 52 structures against 3, and a motorway platform instead of a road.
One thing has not changed at all between the two acts: the share of construction and assembly. On the Buzău orbital road it was 84.96%, here it is 84.92%. On the road side, the ratio between the works themselves and the rest of the expenditure looks stable, whatever the size of the objective.
Against the railway approved in the same issue, the difference is of another kind. There, construction and assembly come to 54.05% of the value, here to 84.92%. Per kilometre, the works themselves cost 159.6 million lei on the motorway and 53.1 million on the railway, that is, 3.01 times more, even though the total value per kilometre differs by only 1.91 times. The difference shows where the money goes: on the motorway, into concrete and earthworks; on the railway, into design, installations and equipment.
Advantages and disadvantages
What it improves
- The annex describes the object, not just the price. Eight categories of capacity, from the length and width of the platform to the number of bridges, tunnels, lay-bys and interchanges, give a verifiable benchmark at handover.
- The figures close to the unit. Three instalments of 3,117,260,000 lei give exactly the total, and the construction and assembly part closes as well, with the rounding carried in the last year.
- It names the European programme. Article 2 says the Transport Programme 2021-2027, not merely non-repayable external funds, which helps in tracking absorption.
- The prices are relatively recent for an act of this kind: 27 February 2026, that is, 210 days before publication, against 324 days for the railway in the same issue.
- It completes a corridor already begun. The Sibiu-Făgăraș segment was already under an expropriation procedure, and Brașov-Făgăraș now receives its approved value, so the Sibiu-Brașov corridor moves forward at both ends.
What remains a problem
- The 36 months have no starting point. No reference to publication, to a contract or to an order to start works, and the years in the phasing are not calendar years. A period that cannot be calculated cannot be exceeded either.
- The phasing is an arithmetical division, not a works schedule. Identical sums in all three years, on works with 6 tunnels and 46 bridges, describe no real pace on site: on objectives of this kind, spending rises in the middle, it does not stand still.
- It is not known how much comes from European funds and how much from the State budget. The sources are listed in the same sentence, with no percentage and no amount.
- A single interchange over 49.75 km. The act does not show how the localities between Brașov and Făgăraș reach the motorway, and access is precisely what turns a motorway into infrastructure used locally, not only for transit.
- The annex does not give the value in euros, although it states the exchange rate, so any comparison with other projects requires the reader to do the division themselves.
- The prices are fixed as at 27 February 2026 and there is no updating mechanism at all. On top of the 210 days that passed until publication come 36 months of execution, and on an objective with so many structures the cost of materials does not stand still.
Practical advice
- Read the sum as a ceiling, not as a final price. Technical and economic indicators are the limit within which contracts may be signed, and exceeding them requires a new decision, published in the Official Gazette of Romania as well.
- Remember that the value includes VAT. The act does not show the rate and does not separate the tax, so part of the 9.35 billion lei returns to the budget.
- Do not confuse the approval of the indicators with the start of the works. Next come the tender, the contract, the remaining expropriations and the order to start, each with its own timetable.
- If you own land along the route, follow the expropriation decisions, not this one. Indicators trigger no procedure and produce no compensation; expropriation comes through separate acts, with lists of properties in the annex.
- When comparing with other motorways, look first at the number of structures. 52 bridges and tunnels over 49.75 km explain the difference against a lowland road better than any comment about high costs.
- Check the share of construction and assembly too, not only the total. Here it is 84.92%, and on the railway approved the same day, 54.05%. The difference says how much of the money actually reaches the works on the ground.
Frequently asked questions
Does this mean that construction of the Brașov-Făgăraș motorway is starting?
How much does a kilometre cost?
Why is it so expensive compared with other roads?
When do the 36 months start running?
Who pays?
What is its connection with the Sibiu-Făgăraș Motorway?
Is there an earlier decision with different figures for the same objective?
When does the decision take effect?
Editorial analysis
The act is well made for what it sets out to do. The sums add up exactly, the capacities are described over eight lines, the legal basis is the right one, and the annex contradicts itself nowhere. The journalistic interest lies in what emerges only when the decision is set beside its neighbour in the same issue. On 24 September 2026, in the same sitting, the Government approved 9.35 billion lei for 49.75 km of new motorway and 10.49 billion for 106.82 km of modernised railway. The ratio per kilometre, 188.0 against 98.2 million lei, seems to say that rail is cheap. On the works themselves the ratio changes: construction and assembly cost 159.6 million lei per kilometre on the motorway and 53.1 million on the railway, that is, 3.01 times more. What brings the two totals close together is not the price of concrete but the 4.82 billion lei which, on the railway, go outside construction, against 1.41 billion on the motorway.
The second observation concerns the phasing. Nine billion three hundred and fifty-one million seven hundred and eighty thousand lei divided by three gives exactly 3,117,260,000, and the three lines of the annex are identical. On the railway in the same issue, the division is 20, 40 and 40 per cent, round figures as well. Neither of the two schedules describes a building site: on works with 6 tunnels and 46 bridges, spending rises in the middle years, after site organisation and expropriations, and falls at the end. A phasing obtained by division is an accounting document, not a forecast, and the practical consequence is that the discussion about delays will start from a benchmark that was never realistic.
The third observation concerns access. The annex provides for a single interchange over 49.75 km, alongside 52 structures, a maintenance centre, one set of service areas and one set of lay-bys. The ratio between them says something about how the segment has been conceived: a great deal of crossing engineering and little connection with the territory. On a transit motorway between Sibiu and Brașov that may be right, but the act nowhere explains where access is provided for the localities between Brașov and Făgăraș, and indicators approved by government decision are exactly the place where the number of interchanges ought to appear.
The fourth observation has to do with time and price. The value is expressed in prices as at 27 February 2026, and the decision was published 210 days later. On top of that come 36 months of execution with no written starting point. On an objective with 84.92% construction and assembly, that is, almost wholly exposed to the price of materials and labour, the absence of any updating mechanism makes the ceiling, predictably, provisional. The comparison with the Buzău orbital road, approved four days earlier with a practically identical share of construction and assembly, 84.96%, shows that the pattern repeats from one act to the next.
What should be changed
- The execution period should be tied to an event written in the act. A sentence of the kind „the period of 36 months runs from the date of issue of the order to start the works” turns the deadline into a verifiable obligation and gives a benchmark for execution reports.
- The phasing should follow the works schedule, not the division by the number of years. Three identical sums on works with tunnels and viaducts help neither budgeting nor the tracking of execution, and departures from them will say nothing about the project.
- The annex should show how much comes from European funds and how much from the State budget. Two lines with amounts, instead of a list of sources, would turn every decision on indicators into information usable for tracking the Transport Programme 2021-2027 and for estimating the national budgetary effort.
- The value should be written in euros as well, not just the exchange rate. One extra line removes the mistaken conversions from the press and from public debate and makes decisions with different price bases comparable with one another.
- The number of interchanges should be accompanied by their location. A single interchange over 49.75 km is a transport policy decision, not a technical detail, and it deserves to be written where the money is approved.
- Decisions on indicators should contain a mechanism for updating prices. The reference date is there, 27 February 2026, but the mechanism is missing. Without it, every rise in costs is settled through another decision, and therefore through another delay.
Original text of the legal act
The text below is reproduced in Romanian, the official form of publication.
The full text, as published in the Official Gazette of Romania
Official Gazette of Romania no. 818 of 25 September 2026, page 8 16 pages PDF, 156 KB the act starts on page 8
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This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. For specific situations, consult a licensed attorney or tax advisor.