Improving the connection of tertiary nodes Mangalia and Balchik to TEN-T infrastructure

This project comes to greet an issue widely spread in the border area, namely the poor connectivity of the inhabitants to TEN-T network, even if their city is situated on or near the TEN-T (core or comprehensive). As described by the European Commission, the purpose of the TEN-T is to promote transport chains for passenger and freight, while the roads comprising the actual TEN-T network are mainly highways or European roads. At the same time, the result indicator of the Programme refers to the population of the cross-border area served by modernized infrastructure leading to TEN-T. Therefore, the connectivity to TEN-T is, in fact, defined by how the inhabitants can access, from their cities, the highways and European roads, components of the TEN-T. As a result, the existing road infrastructure is the one that establishes if the inhabitants have an adequate connectivity to TEN-T, and not necessarily the geographical location of the cities in relation to the indicative TEN-T map. This applies for Mangalia and Balchik, 2 cities on the Black Sea coast, where the connectivity to the passing-by TEN-T is impaired by the poor road infrastructure that serves the inhabitants. And not only the inhabitants are affected, but also the touristic attractiveness of the cities (given that Mangalia and Balchik have great touristic potential) and the economic development, highly dependent on the connection between waterways and road infrastructure, both cities being multimodal nodes. In conclusion, the common challenge represented by the weak road infrastructure has a negative impact on both partners on 2 major directions: the access of its inhabitants to TEN-T and towards the border point Vama Veche – Durankulak and the accomplishment of the full economic potential of the area, taking into account the strong touristic potential and the fact that both municipalities are multimodal nodes with strong naval activity. At the same time, the cities do not benefit from appropriate route guidance related to the large number of tourists that visit Mangalia and Balchik. Another challenge is that the public transport is not correlated in a cross-border manner and only has a local perspective. The overall objective of the project will be to improve access for the inhabitants of the 2 partners and for all those who are transiting the cities to TEN-T and to create the premises of further economic development of the region, by proper connection of the multimodal points. The change that the project will make is to improve cross-border traffic conditions (private and public) in the area, by joint focus on a cross-border perspective. In Mangalia, the modernization of the roads will help drain the traffic in and out of town, with a focus on passenger cars and tourist attractions. A total of 17 roads will be modernized, many of them with a direct connection to TEN-T, represented by E87, including the main artery of the city. By applying the 2 km radius, it is estimated that 90% of the inhabitants will benefit from the improved infrastructure, resulting thus in a major impact on the life of the city. It will lead to less traffic jams, less pollution, improved safety for all traffic participants and better access to touristic objectives. In Balchik, the project will create a better connection for the city towards the E87, part of TEN-T, in 2 ways: through the main road of the city, Cherno More, which leads most of the inner-city traffic directly to E87, and through 2 other roads acting as beltway, directly connected to E87 towards the Romanian border. These last 2 roads are also connecting the tourist attractions from the Black Sea, allowing the tourists to avoid the city in order to arrive on the coast. It will lead to less traffic jams, less crowded inner-city traffic, less pollution and the premises for the economic development of the businesses in the area (e.g. tourist resorts). The project contributes to the output indicators I1 - Total length of reconstructed or upgraded roads with more than 20 km of modernized roads (7.8 km in Mangalia and 9 km in Balchik) and I2 - Number of joint mechanisms to facilitate the connection of secondary/tertiary nodes to TEN-T infrastructure with 4 joint mechanisms (route guidance, feasibility study addressing cross-border transport, traffic safety measures and awareness raising activities). As mentioned before, the road infrastructure improved by the project represents direct connection of the cities to the TEN-T network. The approach adopted by the project is highly orientated on the cross-border perspective. This is due to the fact that Balchik & Mangalia share common characteristics regarding the economic and social development. Both cities are important touristic attractions on the Black Sea coast and their economic and social development is strongly influenced by tourism. Moreover, Mangalia is the closest Ro city to the Bg border on the Black Sea coast, the border traffic thus having a major impact on the city. On the other side, Balchik is an important destination for Romanian tourist, being the location of the castle of Queen Maria of Romania. Thus, the improvement of the road infrastructure on each side of the border will be of benefit for both Romanians and Bulgarians. In this cross-border perspective, the project plans to develop a new joint mechanism in the area, on cross-border public transport, in order to improve the connection between the 2 cities. The same purpose will be shared by the route guidance system that will also be developed within the project. Another plus factor for adopting the cross-border approach is that, due to their geographical location, both cities have a highly developed naval activity. Mangalia is a very important port on the Black Sea, with one of the biggest dockyards of Romania and of the Black Sea. In this context, any development strategy of the cities has to take into consideration the Black Sea and its cross-border effect and opportunity. The proposed roads improve the connectivity of the 2 cities through direct and indirect connection to TEN-T and, at the same time, the roads are oriented towards the border area: from Mangalia going towards E87(TEN-T) to Bulgaria border at Vama Veche-Durankulak and from Balchik going North towards E87 (TEN-T) to Romania border, the same customs point. The geographic position that places the 2 municipalities on one hand on Black Sea Coast, attracting a great part of the seaside tourists and on the other hand near the custom point on the way of goods transport coming from Asia, and also along the waterways of Black Sea and harbours, require the realization of this partnership. Once the 2 cities are connected, it can be seen that a broader geographical area is linked to the TEN-T, allowing direct connection to a multimodal functional network, this being possible only within a strategic cross-border partnership. Indicative budget: 7.8 million Euro.

The stage of implementation of the investment objectives is as follows: LB - Improving the road infrastructure in Mangalia for a better connection to the TEN-T network - 16 city streets with a total length of 7.83 km - The modernization works were completed and received on October 4, 2022. The municipality of Mangalia carried out an awareness campaign in the schools of Mangalia. The campaign took place between 23-25.03.2022 at the following educational institutions: - Mangalia Economic College, 140 students; - High School No. 3, 125 students; - Sf Andrei Secondary School, 215 students; - Ion Bănescu Technological High School, 145 students; B2 - Modern road infrastructure in Balcic in the development of the connectivity development of the TEN-T network - 8.62 km - was completed on 12.01.2022. B2: 4 publications were made in the local newspaper, 2 radio spots and 50 broadcasts each (100 broadcasts in total) between 01.03.-31.03.2022. B2 conducted awareness-raising activities - Interactive seminars in schools on traffic safety issues in Balchik Municipality where 5 events were organized with 300 participants in total. The events took place between 10-15.03.2022 at the following educational institutions: - SU Hristo Botev, Balchik – 120 participants; - OU St. St. Kiril i Metodiy, Balchik - 60 participants; - OU Antim I, Balcic -114 participants.

According to annex K. Programme Methodology for measuring result indicators, the modernized infrastructure consists of both the improved roadways and the technical tools in order to provide a globally enhanced service to the cross-border population. The project envisages the upgrading of 16 km of road infrastructure in two tertiary and multimodal nodes Mangalia and Balchik, the investment being sustained and enhanced by 4 joint mechanisms (route guidance, feasibility study addressing cross-border transport, traffic safety measures, awareness raising activities); that will facilitate the connection of the two nodes to the TEN-T infrastructure. The roads that the project proposes for modernization serve, foremost, the population living or being in transit in the cross-border area. The first type of population served by the modernized infrastructure will be the inhabitants of the 2 cities. It is, in fact, the basis on which the result indicator is quantified at programme level, taking into account the inhabitants. All roads proposed for modernization are important for the cities’ inhabitants from 2 points of view: inside the cities they ease the access to the objectives of interest (jobs, port, markets, parks, touristic objectives and infrastructures) and public institution (educational, cultural, health services providers, banks, city hall, cultural institution) and outside the cities by the TEN-T connection E87 leading to the joint customs point Vama Veche-Durankulak and on the Black Sea coast and resorts. Part of the roads in Mangalia and Balchik has the role of draining the inner-city traffic towards the TEN-T network It is well known that inhabitants of the 2 cities use to visit often Mangalia and Balchik especially from spring to autumn. The administrations of the 2 municipalities have developed a lot of joint actions over the years, especially in the touristic field and mutual promotion, hence the increased interest of the population of one city to visit the other. Within Mangalia Shipyard (Daewoo Mangalia Heavy Industries) are employed many people living in Mangalia, and the rehabilitation of inner streets and the improvement of connection to the E87 (TEN-T), which is the way to enter the port, brings an important advantage to employees by streamlining traffic to the workplace, avoiding traffic jam and reducing travel delay, especially in the summer. The second type of population, specific to this project, is represented by the tourists. Mangalia and Balchik have to face, each year, a number of 700.000 tourists. Given that the access to the cities is made from the TEN-T network, the improved connections between the cities and the TEN-T will have a positive impact on the traffic conditions the tourists will face. The touristic port of Mangalia, one of the main attractions, is directly connected to TEN-T network by Portului Str. Part of the modernized streets will be used by tourists and locals in their way to the seaside. All the Balchik streets modernized within the project assure the connection from the TEN-T network (the main route the tourists follow) to the seaside where hotels, spa, yacht port, leisure facilities are located. The DOB 1149 and DOB 3160 help tourists interested to come at seaside in Balchik area to avoid crossing the city from North to South (in case of following E87 until the city entrance), offering themselves as a picturesque alternative along seaside, leaving E87 on Topola town and following DOB1149 to Balchik. The tourists’ number overcomes more than 10 times Mangalia and Balchik inhabitants and this information correlated with the average number of stays (5 days) give the real dimension of the need to create a modernized network connected to national and European roads. The third type of population is represented by the transit vehicles that pass Mangalia and Balchik. More than 260.000 vehicles pass each year through the Vama Veche - Durankulak customs point, which means that these vehicles also pass Mangalia, given its vicinity to Vama Veche. In the same time, the 2 cities are daily visited by people living in rural area nearby Mangalia and Balchik, which are coming for health and social services, high schools, cultural events, supermarkets. Another strong correlation of the project to the programme result indicator is given by the joint mechanisms that will be developed. Raising awareness activities, traffic safety measures, route guidance and coordinated public transport are all joint mechanisms aimed directly at improving the overall infrastructure for the population. Due to the huge number of drivers and pedestrians in traffic, route guidance and safety measures are mandatory. The feasibility studies will include coherent measures to decrease the number of accidents (including those resulting in deaths) such as utilization of roundabouts, speed cameras, safety barriers, improvement of poor road surfaces to avoid wet-weather crashes, retro-reflective marking materials. The route guidance will indicate the most appropriate way to follow not only to exit the cities, but also to reach in short time the important objectives in Mangalia and Balchik. At this moment there is no regular transport between the cities. The study aims to identify the possibility of organizing for interested people, only transport services among the cities and resorts along Black Sea coast, with the transport operators logistic support and according to a public and pre-established timetable. It also has to be noted that the study on public transport will concern most of the Black Sea coast from the eligible area, not only the population of Mangalia and Balchik. The project responds to Programme result indicator I6 and to TO 7: Promoting sustainable transport and removing bottlenecks in key network infrastructures / IP 7b: Enhancing regional mobility by connecting secondary and tertiary nodes to TEN-T infrastructure