The 2014 European Rail Awards panel awarded the special prize of Excellence in Infrastructure to FCC Construcción for the construction of the New Europe Bridge between Bulgaria and Romania. The awards were given out yesterday in London in a ceremony where recognition was given to the best rail projects in Europe, and which was attended by sector professionals from around the world. The panel's special prize, the most important one of the congress, was presented by a British Member of Parliament and Cabinet Minister, Michael Portillo.

For Miguel Jurado, Chairman of FCC Construcción, "this award means recognition of our work on a project of great magnitude of building the bridge over the Danube. It is a very important project not only for FCC but also for South East Europe, because it means economic and social development in that entire region. The outcome was excellent thanks to fantastic teamwork".

This recognition is the third that the New Europe Bridge has received. It was also acknowledged by receiving the Award of Merit at the Engineering News Record (ENR) Global Best Projects in May and last year the award from the American Segmental Bridge Institute (ASBI), as a sign of recognition for the engineering quality of the bridge.

The New Europe Bridge, which was constructed in six years, is a project propelled by the Ministry of Transport, Information Technology and Communications of Bulgaria and was distinguished as an important symbol of what can be achieved when collaboration between EU member countries transcends borders. The bridge, 1.9 km in length, connects the cities of Vidin (Bulgaria) and Calafat (Romania) and allows journeys that used to take three hours to be made in only ten minutes.

The bridge is a part of the IV Pan-European Transport Corridor and along it will cross hundreds of thousands of vehicles each year. With its unique concept and design, in only one structure it combines the road, for road traffic to pass, as well as the railway tracks. FCC also constructed access to the train station and was in charge of the remodelling of the already existing stop, as well as the creation of 17 km of new tracks. The entirety of the construction was carried out without any interruption to the existing marine traffic, which equates to 13 million tonnes each year.

The bridge required a total investment of 275 million euros; 225 million of which were contributed by Bulgaria and the other 50 from Romania. The project created thousands of jobs, of which more than 75% were local.