The Bulgarian Ministry of Transport has awarded FCC the contract to build a new bridge over the River Danube, linking the cities of Vidin (Bulgaria) and Calafat (Romania).
The contract is worth 116 million euro.
The contract was signed on 30 January. The decision process took two years. Out of 15 initial bidders, five were short-listed: four consortia headed by Vinci, Bouygues, Zublin and Hochtief, and FCC bidding alone.
The bridge, which is part of Trans-European Corridor IV (Dresden-Istanbul), will measure 1,971 metres in length and was designed jointly by the Fernández Casado engineering firm and FCC Construcción's own engineers. The bridge comprises three sections: one providing rail access from the Bulgarian side of the river, a second section over the non-navigable section of the river, connecting the Bulgarian side to an island in the middle, and a third section, from the island to the Romanian side, spanning the shipping channel. The latter two sections will be hybrid use: rail and road traffic.
The main structure over the shipping channel will be a continuous extradosed prestressed concrete bridge over five spans (three measuring 180 metres each, and the others measuring 124 metres and 115 metres).
The bridge over the non-navigable section will comprise a continuous pre-stressed concrete deck 612 metres long over seven 80-metre spans and a 52-metre outer span. In this area, the road and rail decks will be on separate structures.
The rail access viaduct will comprise a continuous prestressed concrete deck 952 metres long with constant girder depth over 23 equal 40-metre spans and an outer 32-metre span.
