A very silly road...but interesting

[barge1914]

Just been over the Tranfagarasan Pass in Romania...interesting. Built after the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia in the 70s, at great cost in money and lives as a military road by Ceausescu. It was meant to provide a high level quick response route clear of the easily attacked valley routes to fight off a potential Russian invasion, utterly pointless and of little real strategic value...so known as Ceausescu’s Folly. But it’s an interesting route, a surprisingly good road considering the state of so many roads here. Zigzags in abundance, balcony sections, a summit tunnel next to a nice little lake, and some interesting gorges on the way down going south. The best road in Europe according to Jeremy Clarkson (with a touch of exaggeration, there’s more exciting ones in the Alps)....seems he survived the bears to tell the tale.

 

[oppy]

In 1992 together with a friend we set up a charity to work in Romania and western Hungary, mainly in the Carpathian region. We came across several of these roads and they were brilliant, although we did come across the odd dead horse in the middle. The strange thing was though that for a couple of klicks either side of towns the roads were wonderful and then they descended into the kind of cart tracks that we enjoy here in the UK. In 2003 the EU stepped in with a massive restructuring scheme and the roads became wonderful (well mostly), and that was before they became part of the EU, so how did we miss out

 

[barge1914]

Roads in Romania

In 1992 together with a friend we set up a charity to work in Romania and western Hungary, mainly in the Carpathian region. We came across several of these roads and they were brilliant, although we did come across the odd dead horse in the middle. The strange thing was though that for a couple of klicks either side of towns the roads were wonderful and then they descended into the kind of cart tracks that we enjoy here in the UK. In 2003 the EU stepped in with a massive restructuring scheme and the roads became wonderful (well mostly), and that was before they became part of the EU, so how did we miss out

I guess the EC money only goes so far, it’ll be an enormous task to get them all ok. The main roads in the west and south are reasonable, but in the north and east, in Maramures and Harghita, they alternate between new bits of tarmac, tarmac patchwork quilts complete with cracks and bucket sized potholes, and very long sections of ridged and pocketed gravel littered with crushed boulders...I think my teeth are working loose!!! Even in the south and east many villages on minor roads are yet to discover the delights of the Black Stuff.