Romania opens first 2026 highway segment: 12.24 km on A3 Transilvania after years of delay

First highway opening of 2026

Romania will open its first new highway segment of 2026 on Tuesday, 11 August, when CNAIR opens to traffic the 12.24 km Zimbor-Poarta Sălajului lot on the A3 Transilvania motorway. The opening is scheduled for 16:00, preceded by a press conference at 15:00 at the Românași road junction in Sălaj county. With this addition, Romania's operational motorway and expressway network will reach 1,428.5 km. The opening falls one day later than initially announced by interim Transport minister Radu Miruță.

The segment was built by the consortium SA&PE Construct SRL, Spedition UMB SRL, and Tehnostrade SRL. Sources disagree on the contract value: Adevărul reports 680 million lei without VAT, while HotNews, citing Economica, gives 905 million lei without VAT. The contract was signed in June 2020 (per Adevărul) or on 1 July 2020 (per Pro Infrastructură), and provided for 12 months of design and 24 months of execution.

A troubled history

Asociația Pro Infrastructură described the lot as having "a troubled history and being very delayed." The contracts for Nădășelu-Zimbor and Zimbor-Poarta Sălajului were signed with UMB on 28 December 2020 and 1 July 2020 respectively, both providing 12 months for design and 24 for execution. Start orders came on 25 January 2021 and 31 May 2021, with construction permits issued in stages through 2021, the last in December 2021.

Under the original terms, the segment should have been ready by December 2023, or at the latest August 2024, accounting for technical disputes at Zimbor hill and terrain difficulties. The association places part of the blame on contractor UMB, while also citing massive landslides at Nădășelu in September 2021 and at Topa Mică in 2022, as well as delays and indecision by CNAIR officials that cost a full year. CNAIR director Cristian Pistol announced on 7 August that the technical team was already on site and had begun the reception procedure, as the contractor UMB was mounting parapets at the provisional technological access openings and finishing a retaining wall at kilometre 21.

Section 3B context

The Zimbor-Poarta Sălajului lot is part of section 3B Mihăiești-Suplacu de Barcău, which spans 80.03 km and is divided into five lots. The other lots include Mihăiești-Zimbor (13.26 km, opening 2026), Poarta Sălajului-Zalău (15.14 km, opening 2031), Zalău-Nușfalău (25.84 km, opening 2031), and Nușfalău-Suplacu de Barcău (13.55 km, opened September 2023). The 2031 lots are being built by the MAKYOL-OZALTIN consortium, while the Nușfalău-Suplacu de Barcău lot was built by Nurol Insaat Ve Ticaret AS. Access to the new 12.24 km segment will be via the road junctions at Zimbor and Românași.

What comes next

Pro Infrastructură expects that the Turkish company Ozaltin could finalise deviations at Topa Mică and Nădășelu by late autumn, at the latest December, roughly 3 to 4 months ahead of schedule. That would allow drivers to travel the full 42.3 km between Poarta Sălajului and Nădășelu, continuing on A3 to Târgu Mureș, over 155 km. The next highway opening expected in Romania is at the end of August: 47 km on the A7 between Adjud Nord and Bacău Sud.

Secretary of State Horațiu Cosma announced in late July that a roughly 30 km segment, Chiribiș-Biharia, could open by the end of the year, about five months ahead of the contract term. Authorities aim to enable travel on A3 from Oradea to Cluj by year-end, with a single interruption at Poarta Sălajului-Nușfalău, where the Meseș tunnel is under construction.

After years in which the Transilvania Highway was associated with delays and unfulfilled promises, today we see more and more construction sites turning into reality, even ahead of contractual deadlines.