Transfagarasan high road, re-opened as of today

Transfagarasan high road is opening on Friday. Traffic on Transfagarasan has been closed down between Piscu Negru and Balea Cascada Chalet since November last year.

However, this road sector will be closed at night, from 9 p.m. to 7 a.m. due to the fog and unexpected weather conditions that might jeopardize the safety of the traffic participants. “At the side of the tunnel near Balea Lake the traffic is at 2,042 metres altitude,” reads a press release by the National Road Company.

Traffic participants are also warned to avoid road sectors where rocks can fall down, between km 56+700 – km 116+000 and km 117+100 – km 132+800.

These road sectors are signaled and cars are banned to stand there.

Transfagarasan or DN7C is a mountain paved road crossing the southern section of the Carpathian Mountains. It has national-road ranking and it is the second-highest paved road in Romania after Transalpina. The road starts near the village of Bascov, located near the city of Pitesti, ending on the crossroad between DN1 and Sibiu.

Also known as Ceausescu’s Folly, it was built as a strategic military route that stretches 90 km with twists and turns that run north to south across the tallest sections of the Southern Carpathians, between the highest peaks in the country, Moldoveanu, and the second highest, Negoiu. The road connects the historic regions of Transylvania and Wallachia and the cities of Sibiu and Pitesti.

The Transfagarasan was constructed between 1970 and 1974, during Nicolae Ceausescu’s communist rule as a response to the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet Union.

Built mainly by military forces, the road had both a high financial and human cost. Work was carried out in an alpine climate, at an elevation of 2000 meters, using junior military personnel who were untrained in blasting techniques. Many non-commissioned officers (NCOs), foremen, and soldiers died due to hazardous working conditions. Roughly six million kilograms of dynamite were used on the northern face, and official records state that about 40 soldiers lost their lives in building accidents.