Highways in Romania

Nevertheless, every owner of a car that uses a motorway (A), an expressway (DEx) or a national road (DN) in Romania must purchase a vignette (rovinietă) from any of the main petrol stations or at any post office throughout the country.

[5] Expressways only have a narrow 1.5 m gravel roadside on the right side, added to the 0.5 m asphalted road edges, and may not have acceleration and deceleration lanes in mountainous areas.

[7][8] Generally, feasibility studies for motorways have a minimum projected speed of 100 km/h, while for expressways, it is reduced to 80 km/h.

Until the collapse of the communist regime in 1989, the building of a second motorway between Bucharest and Constanța had been planned, but only an 18 km long segment of A2 from Fetești to Cernavodă opened in 1987.

A large sector of A3, termed "Transylvania Motorway", was awarded controversially in 2004 without bidding to the American Bechtel Corporation.

Large cost overruns and delays ensued for this project, and after political controversies, most of the contracts were cancelled, and only some 50 km of the Cluj bypass (Gilău – Turda – Câmpia Turzii) were opened between 2009 and 2010, at much larger costs than initially signed in the contract.

After joining the European Union in 2007, Romania was able to access funds for infrastructure development more easily, especially for those part of the Pan-European Corridor IV overlapping with A1 and A2 motorways.

Political debates and changes in priorities of left-leaning parties after 2014 greatly slowed down motorway projects.

The A7 motorway, between Ploiești and the border with Ukraine, has been planned to be part of the Pan-European Corridor IX, but so far only the Bacău bypass has been built.

However, PNRR funding is ensured for most of its segments, with tendering contracts existing for its first 320 km till Pașcani.

Beyond Pașcani, the Corridor IX is envisioned to be covered by the A8 (the East–West Motorway, a link between Moldavia and Transylvania), with the first construction contract signed in 2023.