World's Shortest Highway, world record set by the one-meter highway

November 24, 2025

SUCEAVA, Romania--Fed up with the sparse motorway network in his home region of Moldavia, Romania, Stefan Mandachi, a 33-year-old who owns a chain of fast-food restaurants, privately commissioned a one-meter-long stretch of motorway nearby the Suceava City, in north-eastern Romania; the motorway sets the new world record for the World's Shortest Highway (Shortest Motorway, according to the WORLD RECORD ACADEMY.

Photos: Facebook/Ștefan Mandachi

"A one-meter highway was built in Romania by businessman Stefan Mandachi as a symbolic protest against the lack of modern road infrastructure in the country's northeast region.

"The short, symbolic road was intended to draw attention to the region's poor infrastructure and the government's failure to build needed highways, costing around €4,500 to construct." (AI Overview)

Who: The project was initiated by Stefan Mandachi, a Romanian fast-food entrepreneur.
What: He funded and built the world's shortest highway, which measures just one meter in length.
Where: It was built on his own land in northeastern Romania, near the city of Suceva.
Why: The protest aimed to highlight the poor state of Romanian infrastructure and the government's unfulfilled promises to build modern highways.
Impact: The project garnered significant media attention and was supported by a nationwide 15-minute work stoppage protest, though the region's infrastructure issues remain

"Ștefan-Valentin Mandachi (born February 11, 1986, Călărași, Romania) is a Romanian entrepreneur and lawyer, known for the humanitarian causes he was involved in during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as for the support he provided to Ukrainian refugees following the Russian invasion, hosting over 5,000 refugees and over 700 pets from Ukraine for free in the hotel he owns in Suceava.

"He gained national notoriety in 2019, when he started the "Romania wants highways" protest, a campaign with a massive impact, which aimed to highlight a problem that Romania faced after the Revolution: the lack of highways, especially in the Moldova area." (Wikipedia)

"On March 15, 2019, Mandachi built a 1-meter-wide concrete platform on private land in the locality of Cumpărătura, Suceava County, which he symbolically titled “The First Meter of Highway in Moldova.”[9] Around this symbol, he launched the #șîeu manifesto, a national protest directed against the entire Romanian political class after 1989.

"The 15-minute national break, on March 15, had wide echoes in Romania and the Romanian diaspora, uniting millions of Romanian citizens and thousands of companies. The civic initiative initiated by Mandachi benefited from the intense support of the entire national media, as well as the international press.

"The international publication BBC dedicated an editorial to the Suceava businessman “Romania’s mini-motorway built to shame a nation”, and the German newspaper Der Standard published a three-page article in its written edition, entitled “Ein Meter Autobahn soll Rumänen wachrütteln”. (Wikipedia)

"A Romanian fast-food entrepreneur has funded a one-metre-long highway near the town of Suceava to protest against the absence of a modern road network in the northeast of the country," the Global Construction Review reports.

"Stefan Mandachi, the owner of Spartan, Romania’s biggest fast-food chain, spent €4,500 on the world’s shortest road scheme, which was built on a field between two monasteries in Putna and Voronet monasteries.

"CNAIR, Romanian’s state-owned public roads company, has promised to open 180km of new motorways this year, however a Romanian infrastructure watchdog Pro Infrastructura estimates that only 43km will be completed. Last year, CNAIR aimed to complete 100km, but only succeeded finishing 60km."

"Fed up with the sparse motorway network in his home region of Moldavia, Stefan Mandachi, a 33-year-old who owns a chain of fast-food restaurants, privately commissioned the tiny motorway at a personal cost of £3,800 (€4,400; $5,000)," the BBC reports.

"Romania has one of the shortest motorway networks in the European Union, with just 806km (500 miles) throughout the whole country. This despite having a land mass almost equal to that of the UK.

"His motorway, situated on a plot of land he owns next to a busy main road, was symbolically built in Suceava, a city in a part of the country that has no stretches of motorway at all."

"The #şîeu manifesto is the boldest action I have ever taken. When I look back, I am overwhelmed by the result, but I am scared when I realize the great risks I took with my protest," the official website says.

"De asemenea, protestul pe care l-am generat a fost un gest de răzvrătire împotriva nesimțirii întregii clase politice. A fost un manifest împotriva tuturor guvernelor și tuturor președinților. Sunt profund atașat față de acțiunea mea hotărâtă."