Growing traffic requires the expansion of Hungarian motorway M1

Although the pavement reconstruction works of the busy autostrada were just finalised at the end of this autumn, between Budapest and Tatabánya, soon they will start its complete reconstruction. In just a couple of weeks, preparation works on its complete renewal and expansion of lanes will be finished. Meanwhile, plans are already being made for a new section connecting Komárom and Székesfehérvár in order to avoid the agglomeration area of the capital, thus moderating international traffic. The government has been working on correcting motorway conditions all over the country, as it did in the case of M4 this year. 

The M1 motorway is an important route not only for Hungarians but also for personal and transportation vehicles circulating between Germany and Turkey. This is best shown by the high number of the so-called Romanian “horror caravans” (trucks or other vehicles transporting cars) and the revenues coming from tolls. At the same time, the traffic of the capital’s agglomeration is increasing year by year, which gives strategic importance to the motorway. The government decided, already in the middle of the 2010s, that the complete reconstruction and expansion are inevitable, and so in 2018, the planning process started. These past days, due to some technical reasons, the contract needed to be modified which, however, will not influence the deadline of the finalisation in the middle of January, writes Magyar Nemzet. 

According to the contract, the company delivering the plans has to expand the motorway of currently 2×2 lanes to 2×3 lanes on two sections: from the motorway M0 to Tatabánya Újváros, then from there until the junction of Győr on motorway M19.

This latter section is a part of the autostrada which avoids the city in the direction of Budapest. Together with the expansion, they will work on the complete reconstruction of the motorway, on the broadening of bridges, and on the creation and expansion of complex and simple rest areas.

When the expansion was decided on, the M1 was in fairly bad condition with hundreds of pot-holes. The Hungarian Public Roads Ltd. (Magyar Közút Zrt.) started working on reconstructing the pavement after a big number of articles were written on its condition. Since 2018, on the section between Budapest and Tatabánya, in both directions, a total of 71 km of roads were renewed, which were finalised this autumn. It is open for the public without any restrictions, in good and safe conditions since the end of October.

Along with such reconstruction works, the Ministry on Traffic started to take into consideration decreasing the traffic entering Budapest and the international transit traffic on motorways heading to road M0.

The population change of the capital itself and that of the countryside, together with the economic activity of the country, puts pressure on the motorway which is further pressured by the international transit traffic.

László Mosóczi, Secretary of State of the Ministry of Innovation, said to Magyar Nemzet that they want to develop a motorway of rapid circulation on which vehicles can run between Hegyeshalom and the crossing points of Romania without having to touch the capital and the M0.

The first part of the realisation of the works concerns the M81, where the company carrying out the reconstruction was chosen back in the summer. Over the course of this development, a 120-km-long section between the North and the South will be created in Transdanubia, also by improving already existing roads. This 4-lane road will give the opportunity to avoid the capital since it will start from M1 going almost to M6 while intersecting with M7.

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Source: Magyar Nemzet