The Road to Hell: A road juncture in Romania that stumbled the world

Timisoara, Europe’s Capital of Culture of 2021, has become famous after its newly modernized busy traffic juncture was finished and the news was picked up in the British, Russian, Japanese, and Chinese media.

The Sun magazine asks its readers whether they would be able to cross that junction, to navigate through that mess, which resembles an abstract artwork rather than traffic guidance, and called it The Road to Hell.

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Locals are also trying to make sense of the road paintings, and from their standpoint, the junction is more like something on the lines of a pirate treasure map, it was even called markings to the Holy Grail, but the Road to Hell fits into the narrative as well.

And, indeed, 24 hours after the inauguration, an accident already took place. The marks on the road are very confusing and drivers are afraid to get into that busy junction of fear to not to hurt themselves and others.

After photos of the junction have gone viral and the international media picked up the news, the local police started to investigate whether the marks painted on the road are in line with road circulation rules, and the investigation found that the marks are in line with European standards, just that the added white dots are causing the confusion, making it nearly impossible to cross the intersection.

 

Following the international news coverage, the mayor of the city stated that he was against the project from the beginning, while the spokesman for the road building company told the media:

“From my point of view, it’s logical”.

“If you’re in the lane of traffic, you’ll see it’s no problem.”

“The comments came because this junction is more marked than any other junction in Timisoara city.”

The modernization works and the widening of the Jiul underpass, at the end of which the juncture is found, has begun in the summer of 2016 and costed nearly 8 million euros.

The local administration spent a fortune on this modernization project, and they will likely spend a significant amount of money to correct their mistakes.

It’s a plain double mockery with taxpayers money.