Infrastructure in 2007-2013: the roads have priority

Professor Radu Pencea writes about the Romanian authorities' plans in the transport infrastructure field, concluding that they favor road transport for the next 6 years, in contradiction to the European strategy, which stresses on the rail and ship transport. There are many explanations and justifications to support the option, but there are also involved many major risks of turning aside from the communitarian objectives, if the strategy is implemented on an extended period.
In Romania, the transport's and infrastructure's development strategy aims at reducing the transportation duration by modernization of current transport networks, in the light of building new highways and by-pass roads surrounding major cities, whose transit is at the moment an impediment to the normal flow of passenger and freight.
Professor Pencea argues that Romania should work on making more efficient the road network, by investing in the highways and in the by-passes, together with the enhancement of the combined transport, so that the freights' path covered on the road should be reduced.
Once established, the priorities' order in allotting the 5,7 billions Euros stated in the Sectorial Operational Program Transport for 2007-2013 should be followed by greater investments into ship and rail infrastructure, as the expenses' percentage for the road sector should diminish.