The only road leading to the Tulcea locality of Chilia Veche has swallowed up almost 10 million euros in 10 years for maintenance and repairs, according to information provided by Tulcea County Council at the request of Info Sud-Est and G4Media.ro. The paving of the white, stone road has been blocked following a dispute with a local company, the institution added. Although it was “urgently repaired” (in effect, patched) after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the 70-kilometre road takes almost three hours to complete due to its advanced state of disrepair. The only asphalt stretches are those within the villages, which belong to the municipalities.
The county road linking Tulcea to Chilia Veche (DJ222N) came under the authroity of County Council in 2011. Since then, the road has been repaired and maintained through works worth almost €10 million, money disbursed from the county budget. The works have been carried out every year (except 2013). On average, the works take place twice a year, and in 2016 and 2017 works were carried out on three and four occasions respectively, according to data analysed by Info Sud-Est and G4Media.
In 2022, following the outbreak of war in Ukraine, emergency repair funds of €5 million were allocated at the request of the Tulcea County Committee for Emergency Situations. The money was allocated from the Government’s reserve fund, says Horia Teodorescu, president of Tulcea County Council.
Chilia Veche borders the Ukrainian town of Chilia Noua, which has been heavily shelled by the Russians in recent months. Moreover, Russian drone fragments have fallen in villages along the stone road (e.g. Plauru, a village belonging to Ceatalchioi, the first commune after Tulcea), alarming the authorities and local communities. Tulcea County Council said that “maintenance works will be carried out on the damaged sections, which will allow the traffic on the above-mentioned stretch to proceed in optimal conditions”. At the moment, due to the advanced deterioration of the road, drivers cannot drive faster than 25-30 km/hour without endangering themselves or their cars.
- Info Sud-Est and G4Media reporters who went to Chilia Veche described in detail the state of the road and how the 70 kilometres are being driven in a report at the end of August and in another report at the beginning of October.
- The road is all the more important now that it is the only land access route to several Romanian villages on the border with Ukraine and, if paved, would provide a much quicker route for evacuation or supplies. For example, by boat, the Tulcea-Chilia distance can be covered in 4-5 hours, by speedboat in 2 hours, and on a paved road it could be covered in 45-50 minutes.
The County Council said that the institution’s efforts to obtain the necessary funding to upgrade the road had been suspended because of the dispute with SC Agrodelta Sireasa:
“Since the steps to obtain funding for the modernization of this road have been suspended due to litigation between the Tulcea County Council and S.C. Agro Delta Sireasa, the Tulcea County Council, being the administrator of the road, has carried out repair works on certain sections of this county road by resurfacing the stone. The continuation of the steps concerning the submission of the application for funding of the project to modernise the county road DJ222N will be resumed once the disputes between the Tulcea County Council and S.C. Agro Delta Sireasa have been resolved,” the reply reads.
Former European Funds Minister Eugen Teodorovici (a;so former PSD senator from Tulcea) proposed to the County Council in May that the road be handed over to the government for rehabilitation.
In 2018, when Tulcea county and especially the Danube Delta were beginning to swallow the billion euro from the EU for the modernisation of the region, the CJ’s attempt to attract EU money for the asphalting of the road failed. Authorities say it was blocked by Agrodelta Sireasa, an agricultural enterprise that works the land along the road.
The company claims that part of the county road is its private property because it is located on defensive dikes belonging to the company’s agricultural development. In a memo to the company, the County Council argues that the road is not on the defensive embankments or outline but on a construction assimilated to the embankment:
- “In all its actions S.C. Agrodelta Sireasa S.A. relies on a deliberately truncated and/or distorted presentation of the legal regime of the public property real estate it claims, aiming primarily to create the appearance of uncertainty regarding the validity and legitimacy of the public property right of Tulcea County Council/Tulcea County over DJ 222N and to create and maintain artificially and abusively a litigious state regarding the property, in order to be able to block their proper administration and maintenance,” the CJT memo states.
Tulcea County Council also claims that, following a complaint by the company, the Ministry of Development suspended a grant of more than 200 million lei (about 40 million euros) from the ITI Danube Delta mechanism, with which the road was to be asphalted:
- “(…) Following a complaint to the Ministry of Regional Development, S.C. Agrodelta Sireasa S.A. managed to convince the decision-makers of the existence of uncertainty regarding the validity and legitimacy of the public ownership of the Tulcea County Council/Tulcea County over DJ 222N and to determine the measure of suspending the financing procedure from European funds for the rehabilitation of the county road DJ 222N, in the amount of 203,496,456 lei (VAT included)”. The CJT’s full memorandum can be consulted here.
The Agrodelta Sireasa company has several lawsuits against the County Council, concerning the Tulcea Chilia county road, according to the court’s portal. The company is owned by former PDSR senator Traian Rece (2000-2004), who later joined the PSD and resigned in 2003. The company is also owned by minority shareholders Matei Alexandru Rece and Mihai Cătălin Rece.
- Contacted by Info Sud-Est and G4Media, former senator Traian Rece said that the road cannot be paved because it is in the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve and the dam is owned by the company he owns: “Have you heard of asphalt in a UNESCO reserve? Even the president of the County Council (Tulcea, editor’s note) says that we can’t asphalt because the law doesn’t allow us to and the Ministry of the Environment is coming up on us (…) The County Council admits that the dike is the property of Agrodelta (…) You can only lay stone on it because it is a communal road (…) These things were done during Ceaușescu’s time because the roads were used and the dike on which the road is located to remove the crops from the 60. 000 hectares of arable land (…) Litigation is ongoing and will continue because the state is associated with Agrodelta Sireasa, i.e. the Ministry of Finance and holds 10.23% of the shares,” former senator Traian Rece told G4Media and Info Sud-Est.
- Contacted by Info Sud-Est and G4Media, the Tulcea Prefecture and the Ministry of Development did not give a point of view on possible steps and funding for asphalting the road in the near future or on the loss of the €40 million European funding.
What the €10 million repairs consisted of
Representatives of Tulcea County Council also stated that over the 10 years, the road repair and maintenance works consisted of:
- “maintenance works on gravel roads by scarification and reprofiling by adding crushed stone”;
“cement concrete road surfacing”;
- “profiling of pavements by mechanised cutting’;
- “asphalt coating made of BA16, 5 cm thick (Pătlăgeanca village, Ceatalchioi village, Chilia Veche village)”;
- “scarification of hardness, levelling and compaction of the road, longitudinal markings, transverse markings and miscellaneous”;
- ‘installation of road signs, installation of road sign posts’;
- “paving of pavements with broken stone”.
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