Romania Approves Night Shift for Highway Shoulder to Absorb Traffic That Has Not Arrived Yet

The Romanian government on Thursday approved a permanent night-shift roster for the future shoulder of the Sibiu–Pitești motorway, assigning 1,842 traffic directors to stand at kilometre markers 55 through 68 and wave at vehicles that have not yet been manufactured.

Transport officials said the crews, equipped with reflective vests, lanterns and thermos flasks, will begin reporting for duty on Monday, taking up positions on the unpaved ground where the asphalt is scheduled to be laid in 2027. Each director has been issued a printed timetable showing a vehicle every 40 seconds, a schedule the ministry describes as «realistic and prudent» given that the nearest functioning highway ends 90 kilometres away.

«We cannot afford to be caught unprepared when the first car arrives,» said a ministry spokesperson, standing in a field of thistles that will one day be the third lane. «Our colleagues will practise the welcoming gesture for eight hours a night, rotating in three shifts, so that the moment a driver appears, we are ready to direct them somewhere.»

Local councils along the route have already installed portable toilets at each assigned post, and the national railway company has offered to run a shuttle bus so the night crews can reach their positions without walking through the mud. The first rehearsal is scheduled for Friday at 2 a.m., when the directors will wave at a convoy of tractors borrowed from nearby farms to simulate the traffic that the A1 is expected to attract.

«Some say we are early,» the spokesperson added, adjusting a hard hat over a wool cap. «We say the highway will not build itself, and neither will the traffic jam.»

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