Hungarian motorway reaches Croatian border, runs into nowhere – PHOTOS

Construction of the extremely costly M6 motorway in Hungary has been completed. Interestingly, the road runs into nowhere at the Croatian border.

An expensive motorway that runs into nowhere

Telex has spotted that Főmterv, the company involved in the design of the last section of the M6, has posted pictures of the motorway running into nowhere. The motorway, which is almost completely paved, comes to an abrupt halt at the Croatian border, and there is nothing but endless farmland beyond.

Despite the terrible cost, traffic on the M6 motorway is very light. In August 2019, Unitef ’83 and Főmterv completed the technical and permitting plans for the section up to the border, Telex explains. In December 2020, the winner of the contractor tender was announced. Strabag was awarded the contract at a very high price (even though it was still cheaper than its competitors) of HUF 88.7 billion (EUR 236.7 million). This represents a road construction cost of HUF 4.5 billion (EUR 12 million) per kilometre.

Handover date is next January, but the Croatian part is not ready yet

The state shown in the photo is not yet final, the contractor will have everything ready by November, with an official handover date of 14 January 2024. However, the continuation in Croatia is not yet ready. The Croatian government was due to tender for the construction last year, but the date has been pushed back to this year. It is not yet known when it will take place.

As Telex writes, in the distant future, an international transport corridor (the pan-European corridor 5C) will run here, from the Baltic Sea to the Adriatic (to the city of Ploče), including the Hungarian M6 and its Croatian continuation, the A5 motorway, as well as the still very rudimentary Bosnian section via Zenica and Sarajevo.

Still a long time before we can use the whole motorway

The 88.6-km-long A5 in Croatia is in good shape: from Osijek south to the Bosnian border, it was completed earlier and the section almost to the Hungarian border was opened last December. As the tendering process has slipped compared to the original plans, the 2024 completion date is unlikely to be met. This means that the missing link between the Hungarian M6 and the Croatian A5 will not be in place for at least a year.