At the end of June this year several minor Bulgarian news websites revealed problems surrounding construction of the second bridge over the Danube river between Bulgaria and Romania. The bridge, known as Danube Bridge 2, will connect the towns of Vidin in Bulgaria and Calafat in Romania. Deadline for completion is 2010.  

These reports, based on news websites’ own sources who preferred to remain anonymous, claimed the project had been delayed because of late payments to Spain’s Fomento de Construcciones and Contratas (FCC) who won the tender to build the bridge. The news, published a week before the July 5 elections, became an issue in the campaign.

This probably prompted the Transport Ministry, which is in charge of the project on the Bulgarian side, to issue a statement saying that "such media speculation can only harm the relationship between the contractor, the project company and the executor of the project". The FCC, meanwhile, has remained silent.  

According to the Ministry, the foundations of the railway infrastructure and the bridge itself, scheduled for completion by the end of July this year, were now being laid. As for financing, the Ministry said that a total of 43.26 million euro had so far been spent on the construction of the bridge itself and a further 10.22 million euro on accompanying infrastructure on the Bulgarian side. The money had covered expenses on construction and technical supervisory works.  

The project’s estimated cost, according to the signed memorandum, was 226 million euro, the ministry said, noting that Bulgarian financing was 60 million euro. The memorandum was signed in 2005 between the Transport Ministry and the European Commission under the EU’s Ispa pre-accession programme.

The project is also financed by loans and grants from the European Investment Bank, the French Development Agency and the German Credit Institution for Reconstruction and Development. According to the Ministry’s July 30 2009 statement, financing for the project has been guaranteed by both EIB and Bulgaria’s budget, so that "there is no delay".

Currently, work on the project complies with the updated 2008 schedule after the FCC requested an extended deadline and an increase in implementation costs. When the memorandum was signed the project deadline was set at 2008, but after the FCC’s request, this was extended until 2010 because, in August 2008, it was already six months behind schedule.

The reason for the FCC’s demands were the additional geological studies it had to make, changes to the project and delays in the expropriation of private land needed for the project. Romania has also fallen behind schedule but, in June 2009, Bucharest said it would make up the delay.
As for unease surrounding possible delays in payments, the Ministry failed to give a straight answer. On July 1 2009, Transport Minister Petar Moutafchiev conceded some delays on the project - mounting since  2000 - when Ispa went into operation for Bulgaria.

"This team has the necessary will and capacity to lead all of the transport infrastructure projects to a satisfactory resolution," Moutafchiev said. However, he said this a few days before the elections that his Bulgarian Socialist Party lost to Sofia mayor Boiko Borissov’s Citizens for the European Development of Bulgaria (GERB).

Borissov and his team will now be entrusted with the task of completing construction on the second Danube bridge between Bulgaria and Romania. Borissov’s promise to begin work on several highway projects a few weeks after the formation of the Cabinet could be a good omen. Given that the 2km bridge is a key element of a European transport corridor connecting Dresden with Istanbul, its construction is likely to get the support of the new cabinet. Even more so because the Ispa money will run out at the end of 2010, which is also the target launch date for the bridge.