Friendship Bridge Giurgiu Ruse

Few are those who know that, before the Giurgiu-Ruse Friendship Bridge was built, several projects were realized. To create a transit line between the Romanian and Bulgarian side, crossing the river. This was a premiere in Europe.

The Giurgiu-Ruse Friendship Bridge is a steel bridge across the Danube, linking the northern Romanian and southern Bulgarian banks.

ONLY ONE PROJECT AND TOO MANY DELAYS FOR THE GIURGIU-RUSSIA FRIENDSHIP BRIDGE

Between 1866-1869 John Trevor Barkley, an English builder, suggested the construction of a bridge across the Danube to connect the Bucharest – Filaret – Giurgiu railroad with Rusciuc (Ruse) – Varna. The project never materialized due to political instability.

Two years later, in 1871, after the construction of the Constantinople-Adrianopol railroad, the previously abandoned issue was brought back to the fore. The country that brought back into question the construction of a bridge across the Danube at Giurgiu was England. The aim of the British state was a purely economic one, as it saw in the appearance of this access road a shorter link between India and Europe.

Even the brother of the poet Vasile Alecsandri, for many years diplomatic agent of Romania in Paris, Lt. Col. Alecsandri, writes a paper entitled „Apercu sur le project de pont de fer entre Giurgevo et Rustchuck”. He supported the project and even represented the construction company in our country.

This bridge was to be 2878 meters long, with three main spans of 95 meters. Once again, the tense political situation – in 1871 the war between France and Germany broke out and relations between Russia and Turkey were strained – meant that the project never materialized. After the War of Independence in 1877, both Romania and Western Europe turned their attention to Constanta and even showed interest in a link with the port city.

BECAUSE OF THE WAR, THE START OF CONSTRUCTION WAS POSTPONED ONCE AGAIN

In 1883, Mihai Eminescu was firmly convinced that, during his lifetime, the bridge between Giurgiu and Rusciuc would be built. He even set up an agreement with Constantin Simion, the president of the „Carpati” Society. Unfortunately for the great poet, the project was never realized.

Two years before the end of the 19th century, the Romanian Parliament signs and ratifies a convention on the construction of a railroad bridge across the Danube between Severin and Cladova. The financial crisis of 1900 is to blame for the failure of this project.

Thirteen years later, the problem of the bridge across the Danube was revived. Field studies begin on the Tiganasi-Palanca site, south of Turnu-Severin, but even this agreement does not take tangible form because of the outbreak of war. In 1913 Quadrilater – the counties of Durostor and Caliacra – became part of the Romanian state.

In 1922, „Buletinul Societatii Politehnice” published the proposal of engineer Nicolae Petculescu. He proposed the realization of a railway connection on the route Oltenita – Turtucaia – Curtbunar – Buzargic – Balcic with the crossing of the Danube between Oltenita and Turtucaia. In this area the river has a lower bed. This proposal has not been taken up again and has not been materialized in any way.

A NEW DELAY

20 years later, following agreements between Bulgarians and Germans. The construction of the bridge across the Danube is back on the agenda, this time as an emergency. On October 10, 1942, a protocol is signed in Bucharest. The Bulgarian and Romanian governments undertake to build a combined railroad and road bridge through a German firm. The cost of the work was to be borne equally by Romania and Bulgaria. The construction time was set at three years.

In November of the following year, Krupp, the company that was to build the bridge, presented the preliminary design and signed a contract to carry out the borings. The bridge was to be 3691 meters long, with a first span of 150 meters and the following 17 spans of 61.20 meters. The latter would span the Smardan arm and Mocanu island. After August 23, 1944, the project is abandoned, as a result of the turn of arms against Germany and the opening to the USSR that Romania made.

SOVIETS HELP BUILD THE BRIDGE

However, the idea was eventually realized. On June 30, 1951, a protocol was signed between the governments of the People’s Republic of Romania and the People’s Republic of Bulgaria to start the works. The bridge was built under the technical direction of the USSR and Czechoslovakia, Poland and Hungary. These countries agreed to supply metal planks, railroad track, concrete iron, metal piles, cables, various machinery and electrical equipment.

LOCATION OF THE GIURGIU RUSE FRIENDSHIP BRIDGE

The bridge is located 1 km downstream from Giurgiu and 4 km downstream from Ruse. It crosses the Danube at km 489 from its mouth. It was built for mixed traffic: in the lower part it has a single railroad, and in the upper part it has a two-lane road.

For large vessels to pass under the bridge, the central opening is 86 m. A movable deck – can be raised to leave a clear height of 24 meters under the bridge. The superstructure is in alignment and level. The curved and counter-curved connections, with a radius of 900 meters from the ends of the bridge, being made on access viaducts with openings of 33.40 m from each bank.

The superstructure has 37 openings and is symmetrical to the central opening of 86 m. The total length of the bridge is 2223,52m. All the decks are riveted metal (the small ones are made of full-hear beams and the large ones of parallel-shanked beams). The decks of the bridge itself are common for the railroad and the road, while the decks of the access viaducts are separate for each road. The four 80 m and the two 160 m decks are continuous beams on two spans.” (Mircea Alexa, „Premiere in Europe: the mixed railroad bridge over the Danube and Giurgiu-Ruse”, article published in Valahia magazine, Year VII, No. 37, page 9).

At the ends of the railroad variants for access to the new bridge, a new railway station was built on each side of the Danube, Giurgiu Nord and Russe. And the road from the bridge was connected to the Bucuresti-Giurgiu and Ruse-Tutracan roads.

Important elements of the bridge – infrastructure and decks

Out of the total of 38 infrastructures, 18 were executed on caissons. From pier 6 up to and including pier 23, of which 13 on the Romanian side and the rest in reinforced concrete. Piers 18 and 19 cross the border between Romania and Bulgaria.

The 18 locks were built in a year and a month, between July 1952 and August 1953. It should be noted that at that time, for the first time in our country, excavations were carried out by hydromechanization.

The most important part of the work was the erection of the metal decks.

In order to meet the deadline, several actions were carried out simultaneously. These included the assembly, riveting and stacking of the 55 planks weighing a total of 18,200 tons. They were realized simultaneously with the infrastructures, in less than two years.

Thanks to the good organization of all aspects of the work, the superstructures were also completed.

„The earthworks for the access ramps to the bridge were carried out hydro-mechanized to their full height. A total of 896,300 m3 have been executed over a length of 1676 m on our bank and 560 m on the neighboring bank. A further 74,470 m2 of rough stone was also laid. With a layer of crushed stone up to the high water level, followed by 42,300 m2 of two-layer stonework”. (art.cit., page 9)

Works execution and duration

There were no problems during the construction in terms of material supply. The sand and gravel were extracted from open quarries in the Danube riverbed, brought from up to 100 km away. Both crushed and rough stone came from the Macin and Bicsad quarries, as well as from Bulgarian quarries. The stone for the visible face of the infrastructure was brought exclusively from Bulgaria. The metal sheet piles and a 2×160 m metal deck were produced in Poland. The other decks were made in Hungary and Czechoslovakia. The Bocsa factories in our country made 24 road decks and 34 railway decks.

The labor was done by civilian workers and military units. Unfortunately, we cannot say that too many skilled workers participated in the execution of the works, and this was felt. There was a need for more nitiers, chasers and fitters.

On January 24, 1954, the Romanians did not only celebrate the Union of Alexandru Ioan Cuza. They also celebrated the opening of the bridge for service traffic. Five months earlier than planned.

Construction period of the Giurgiu-Ruse Friendship Bridge

The construction took two years and three months and was put into service on June 20, 1954. On this date it was also inaugurated.

The moment was marked by high-ranking officials from the countries that had contributed to its construction and attended the event. Among them were Gheorghe Gheorghiu Dej, Dr. Petru Groza etc..

The main builder of the works was General Direction 889. It executed both the bridge, the viaduct and the ramps. The work was led by a team of engineers from the USSR, headed by engineer I.V. Saprikin, as general director, assisted by the Romanian engineer Alexandru Lungu, as director and the engineer Constantin Stegaru, chief engineer for the works executed from the Romanian side. At the time of its inauguration, this bridge was the largest combined bridge in Europe.

Friendship Bridge gets a „brother”, built with H METAL profiles

In May of 1996, the bridge was in an advanced state of degradation of the roadway structures and of the infiltrations from the roadway subgrade. And, for this reason, it was necessary to re-insulate the waterproofing of the bridge roadway, sidewalks and to replace the expansion joints coverings.

The works were carried out in partnership with Bulgaria under the PHARE 1994 program. They were financed both from the European Union and from non-reimbursable funds.

In 2000, Romania and Bulgaria signed an agreement to build a second bridge between Calafat and Vidin. Since June 2013, the Friendship Bridge is no longer the only bridge linking Romania and Bulgaria. This is also because the bridge between Calafat and Vidin, also known as the „New Europe” bridge, has been put into service.

SC H METAL SRL contributed with material to the construction of this bridge: black installation pipe 48,3 x 3,20 mm, black reduced T-profile 48,3 x 33,7 mm, black plug with threaded end 33.7 mm, galvanized sheet DX51D – 0.50 x 1000 x 2000 mm – 55 sheets, black angle steel 40 x 40 x 4 x 6000mm – 100 pieces, as well as bars.

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