When does Transfăgărășan open?

Traffic on the Transfăgărășan will open in the next two weeks, much earlier than usual, the Brașov Regional Directorate of Roads and Bridges (DRDP) announced on Tuesday.

“The Transfăgărășan will open in the next two weeks! Due to the much smaller layer of snow compared to other years, road cleaning is progressing much faster than in other years,” the DRDP Brașov posted on its Facebook page on Tuesday.

DRDP Brașov stated that at this moment intensive work is being done on snow removal and installation of road signs. “If we continue to have favorable weather conditions, we will be able to reopen traffic almost a month and a half earlier than the usual deadline, which was July 1st,” DRDP Brașov also reported.

Transfagarasan alpine road 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.

Transfagarasan has been seldom included among the most scenic roadtrips in the world.