FCC Construcción has received the 2012 ARACO Quality Trophy for the construction of Basarab Viaduct in Bucharest, one of the biggest projects undertaken in Romania in the last 20 years and now one of the country's foremost examples of pacesetting architecture.

ARACO is the Romanian Association of Construction Entrepreneurs, and its award is a token of the association's recognition of the fine work done on the viaduct, including the introduction of innovating pretensioning and cable-stayed techniques developed by BBR.

Basarab Viaduct has beaten two European records, one because it is the widest cable-stayed bridge in Europe (44 metres wide), and the other because it contains a tram station with ground-level entrances, where travellers can transfer to the metro system and the train system.

Awarded in 2006 with a budget of over 150 million euros, Basarab Viaduct stands northwest of the capital in one of the areas of heaviest traffic, thronging with retail and residential buildings. The elevated structure is 1,950 metres long and helps relieve the pressing vehicle traffic. It also carries one of the capital's main tram routes, and there is a station on the viaduct's cable-stayed section providing access to the metro system and the Gara de Nord platforms.

There are four parts to the viaduct: the Grozavesti Viaduct, the 120-metre-long arch bridge over the Dâmvobiţa River, the Orchidea Viaduct and the cable-stayed bridge across the rail yard, which houses the metro station.

The Romanian stamp authorities regard the viaduct as "a symbol of the capital, an arch over time and history." Accordingly, they have released an issue of postage stamps devoted entirely to the Basarab Viaduct project.

The ARACO Quality Trophy is a distinction established in 1995 for and by professional builders. The Romanian Association of Construction Entrepreneurs holds competitions to select the award's recipients from among building firms that have engaged in highly complex, high-quality special projects in Romania or abroad using innovative technologies. The ARACO Quality Trophy is a trademark registered with OSIM, the Romanian State Office for Inventions and Trademarks.

FCC in Romania

Through its Romanian subsidiary, FCC Constructii Romania, FCC has been a steady player in the country since 2003.

Over the last few years FCC has rehabilitated more than 150 kilometres of road, built 50 kilometres of dual carriageway and constructed special projects such as the cable-stayed Otopeni Bridge. Its current project backlog in Romania is worth upward of 1,000 million euros.

In 2012 FCC won three major railway contracts, Sihisoara-Atel, Atel-Micasasa, Vintu de Jos and Simeria (more than 100 kilometres of new railway line) in Transylvania, Romania, worth 830 million euros. All three projects are part of Pan-European Transport Corridor IV and the programme to expand the Trans-European infrastructure system in general and Corridor IV in particular, from Nuremberg and Dresden to Prague, Bratislava, and Budapest to Bucharest and Constanta.

In addition, FCC is involved in the construction of Bucharest's new metro line V, the Constanta Bypass and the Braşov Bypass.