The project that is to bring the Republic of Moldova its first kilometre of electrified railway — through Ungheni — has taken one more step, this time from the Moldovan bank. On 25 June, representatives of the State Enterprise “Railway of Moldova” made a working visit to the Iași Regional Railway Branch, to coordinate the rehabilitation of the Iași–Ungheni line.
The meeting comes after, a few days earlier, the Bucharest Government approved the electrification of the Romanian half of the line — the administrative step that had opened the way. Now it moves from decisions to engineering.
What was agreed
According to the Railway of Moldova, the discussions covered drafting the project documentation “in accordance with the requirements and standards of the European Union,” with technical supervision provided by certified experts recognised at European and national level. Concrete aspects were addressed: the track superstructure and the adaptation of the traffic-management and communications systems for the sector’s future electrification — including the engineering and geodetic surveys needed to identify the underground and overground networks in the construction zone and protect them from the effects of electric current.
The bridge over the Prut, under examination
The step with the greatest local weight is the bridge over the Prut. The parties agreed on the next stages for the technical assessment of the bridge — the evaluation that must establish the structure’s real condition and the set of measures for its reconstruction. This is the historic railway crossing at Ungheni, part of the route linking the two banks of the Prut, which, in its modernised version, is to carry the electrification’s catenary as well.
For a border-gateway district, each such technical stage moves the project from the realm of promises into that of works. The pace remains to be watched: the EU-standard documentation, the bridge assessment and the tenders to follow will show how quickly the coordination in Iași turns into a construction site in Ungheni.
The information about the working visit and the topics discussed comes from the official statement of the State Enterprise “Railway of Moldova.” The context — the approval in Bucharest of the electrification of the line between Iași and the border — was previously reported by Triunghi.md, based on the decision of the Romanian Government.