The 2026/2027 school year starts on September 7. Bucharest's City Hall has tied that date to the deadlines for several construction projects under public scrutiny: the Basarab Overpass, the slab in Unirii Square, the tram lines affected by the works. On paper, the schedule is being kept, but on the ground, the pace of work still varies from one site to another.

Basarab Overpass: the major restriction lifts on September 7, but the work isn't done

Major repair work began on June 20, on an overpass that hadn't had a signed final inspection since 2011. Since August 21, cars have been running in both directions on the Titulescu–Grozăvești ramp, while the other ramp, Grozăvești–Titulescu, has been closed for finishing work — painting, roadway cleaning, lane markings. City Hall announced that starting September 7, full traffic reopens on both lanes, alongside the return of trams to the route.

That doesn't mean the site shuts down. The contractor, a joint venture of Webuild (formerly Astaldi) and FCC, stays on the overpass until the end of the year for targeted work — old, rusted guardrails that need replacing, expansion joints, sidewalks. The difference is that, in theory, these jobs won't block entire lanes anymore.

Unirii Square: fourth phase, a race against the clock

Reinforcing the deck over the Dâmbovița in Unirii Square is the project with the most missed deadlines of recent years. At the end of August, Sector 4 mayor Daniel Băluță announced that 15 of the 19 sections of the new slab had been poured, eight of them already post-tensioned, and more than 75% of the crown structure was done. The contractor promised the fourth phase would wrap up right before the school year starts, which would bring the last restrictions in the area down around this same window.

How much of that promise holds remains to be seen. Even in the optimistic scenario, the complete concrete slab isn't scheduled until the end of the year, and rebuilding the park in Unirii Square only starts after that, in early 2027.

Metro Line 6 and the Băneasa–Otopeni corridor

The metro construction site that will connect the 1 Mai area to Henri Coandă Airport keeps narrowing the lanes on DN1, on the stretch heading from Băneasa toward Otopeni. This isn't a site that closes overnight — it's the kind of project that stays active well past September, so anyone commuting through there toward the airport has, for now, few options besides leaving earlier.

Bulevardul Expoziției, Calea Dudești, Bulevardul 1 Decembrie

On the sections under rehabilitation along these three streets, car traffic is fully closed. On Vasile Lascăr, Paleologu, and Armand Călinescu, there are restrictions enforced by the Traffic Police, with a clear recommendation to avoid the areas and use alternate routes.

Which detours actually work

For anyone crossing the Basarab overpass area while restrictions are still in place, the Traffic Police recommend Calea 13 Septembrie or Podul Grant as detours — though both streets obviously absorb the extra traffic and get congested themselves during rush hour.

For the Băneasa area, drivers heading to the airport on DN1 during the morning rush generally find shorter travel times on Șoseaua București–Ploiești coming from the north, but the difference isn't dramatic — this is an active metro construction corridor, not a single blocked intersection.

The bigger picture

What all these sites have in common is that they overlap: the metro, the road overpasses, and the Unirii Square slab were all launched at roughly the same time, with the hope that they'd wrap up in the same general window, around the start of the school year. In practice, some deadlines are actually holding — the Basarab overpass looks close to reopening. Others, like the Unirii Square slab or the metro line toward the airport, still depend on the real pace of construction, not the date on the calendar.