Romania adopts ordinance to curb discretionary closures of transport infrastructure

Horațiu Cosma, state secretary at the Ministry of Transport, announced the signing of an ordinance that ends discretionary closures of highways, railways and airport runways in Romania.

The ordinance gives the Ministry of Transport authority to grant approval, conditional approval or a reasoned refusal for significant closures, requiring infrastructure administrators to submit alternatives and impact‑mitigation analyses before requesting a closure; administrators can no longer decide closures alone, and the Ministry may close infrastructure immediately if there is a real danger to public safety. The recent two‑and‑a‑half‑month closure of the A1 Sibiu‑Piteşti highway was decided by Cristian Pistol, director of CNAIR, and the new rules emphasize that such infrastructure belongs to the state and was built with public funds.