Almost half of Romania’s counties are bypassed by highways and express roads, and for some of them the road infrastructure development plans remain uncertain.
In the last days of 2025, with the opening of the Focșani – Adjud section of the A7 Motorway, Romania has exceeded 1,400 kilometers of expressways and roads built in the period 1972-2025.
By 2031, the high-speed road network will include almost double the number of kilometers, if the projects currently in the execution stage (837 kilometers, according to the monitoring site 130km.ro) and those under bidding or planning (about 500 kilometers) are completed.
Almost 150 kilometers of expressways have been opened to road traffic in 2025, and more than 300 kilometers of highway under construction have deadlines for completion during next year.
In 2025, statistics show, highways with a length greater than that of the two sections (A1 Bucharest – Pitesti and A2 between Fetești and Cernavodă) completed in over four decades of communism were built.
However, half a century after the first highway construction plans in Romania were made, many counties are bypassed by such communication routes, and the chances that they will be connected to the highway network in the coming years remain low.
Northern Romania, bypassed by highways
In more than a quarter of Romania’s counties, not a single kilometer of highway has been built to date, and in some cases these are not even found in the future plans on the map of road infrastructure projects.
The counties of Satu Mare and Maramureș do not have a single kilometer of highway or expressway. Recently, the execution contract was signed for an 11-kilometer segment of “Someș Expres” (DEx 14), which will connect the municipality of Satu Mare with the town of Oar, located on Romania’s border with Hungary. The order to start work on this section will be issued at the beginning of 2026, according to the National Road Infrastructure Administration Company, and the deadline for completion is 2027.
Another segment of “Someș Expres”, between the cities of Baia Mare and Satu Mare, is expected to be put up for public auction in 2026. The project is in the feasibility study phase.
“The new expressway will have a length of 59.17 kilometers, two lanes per direction, seven road junctions, 35 passages and 18 bridges. The total value of the investment is 5.93 billion lei”, recently informed the Satu Mare County Council.
Also in the north of Romania, Bistrița-Năsăud county does not have a single kilometer of highway or expressway. Along with Satu Mare, Maramureș, Suceava and Botoșani, it was included, over a decade ago, in the “Northern Motorway” (DEx 14) project, a high-speed road of almost 400 kilometers, planned to connect Romania’s northwestern border with the Bucovina region. The project remained at the planning stage.
The highway has not yet reached Suceava county, but it could be completed in the coming years. The segments Pașcani (Iași county) – Suceava and Suceava – Siret, part of the Moldova Motorway (A7), are in the project stage.
Until now, the counties of Botoșani, Iași, Neamț, Brăila, Galați, Vaslui and Tulcea do not have a single kilometer of highway. In 2026, the authorities estimate that the first kilometers of expressways will reach the counties of Iași (A7) and Neamț (A7 and A8), as well as Brăila and Galați (DEx 6). The residents of Botoșani, Tulcea and Vaslui still have to wait.
There are no highways or express roads in Harghita and Covasna counties. However, Harghita County is located on the route of the Union Highway (A8) Târgu Mureș – Iași – Ungheni, which will cross the Eastern Carpathians, the completion of the mountain highway segments in the county being estimated for the period 2028–2030.
Banat, Oltenia and Muntenia counties without highways
In the southwest of Romania, not a single kilometer of highway or expressway crosses Caraș-Severin and Mehedinți counties.
The two counties were included in a project aimed at the construction of the A6 Bucharest – Lugoj Highway, also known as the Southern Highway. The route would follow the route Bucharest – Alexandria – Roșiori de Vede – Craiova – Calafat – Drobeta-Turnu Severin – Caransebeș – Lugoj. Until now, only a 10.5-kilometer segment (Lugoj – Balinț belt) has been built, in Timiș County, inaugurated in 2013. The rest of the sectors, planned as express roads, are in the phase of feasibility studies.
In Oltenia, Gorj and Vâlcea counties also do not have any kilometers of expressways. Vâlcea County will be crossed in the coming years by the A1 Sibiu – Pitesti mountain highway. The length of the three segments in the construction site, which cross the Olt Valley and the Băiașului Valley, through the counties of Sibiu, Vâlcea and Argeș, is approximately 80 kilometers, and the deadline for completion is 2028.
In Gorj county, the plans aim at the construction of the Craiova – Târgu Jiu high-speed road, with a length of 110 kilometers.
In Muntenia, the county of Teleorman remained, for its part, bypassed by highways and express roads.
Other counties, such as Brașov, Sălaj, Bihor, Dolj, Giurgiu, Dâmbovița and Ialomița only have a few kilometers of expressways.
