Big moment for Eastern Hungary: 127km of new motorway section completed

The Hungarian road-building industry has reached a historic moment, as the westernmost section of the M44 motorway was opened in the Kecskemét area on 15 April. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán attended the event. The new section will be opened to traffic today, 15 April.

The 32.3-kilometre section between Szentkirály and Kecskemét was built by Hódút Építő Kft., a Duna Group company. After the completion of the Ministry of Construction and Transport’s project, a four-lane road from the M5 motorway to Békéscsaba, the Viharsarok expressway link, has been completed.

In December 2016, a total of 127 kilometres of four-lane roads were completed between Békéscsaba and the M5 motorway in a series of projects launched 8.5 years ago: 18 km between Kondoros and Békéscsaba and 62 km between Tiszakürt and Kondoros, including a new Körös bridge. The 10 km Lakitelek-Tiszakürt section was built together with the new Tiszaug bridge, followed by 4.6 km between Szentkirály and Tiszakürt, with a number of other improvements, and the final step was the 32.3 km Kecskemét-Szentkirály section opened today.

The construction phase of the project, which has a comprehensive and consistent development background: the foundation stone of the longest section (62 km Tiszakürt-Kondoros) was laid in October 2019, when the consortium of Duna Aszfalt Zrt, Hódút Kft, A-Híd Zrt, EuroAszfalt Kft, Soltút Kft and Swietelsky Hungary Kft. handed over the road in a decade-old record. The last time such a long section of motorway was completed in the country at the same time was in 2002, and there has been no precedent since then.

The M44 crossed the Tisza with a bridge, unique in Europe

The next milestone was reached a year later, in December 2021, when the Tiszakürt-Lakitelek section, built with a special Tisza bridge, was opened for traffic by Duna Aszfalt Zrt. Built as the fourth four-lane Tisza bridge in Hungary, the total length of the crossing is 556 metres, and the ellipsoidal gateway makes the bridge structure unique in Europe.

The last link in the project series, the 32.3 km Kecskemét-Szentkirály section, was opened today. Hodut Epito completed the latest stretch for gross HUF 185bn (EUR 450m).

The project is not completely finished because although Békéscsaba can be reached from Budapest by motorway, the last junction from Békéscsaba is not yet fully motorway accessible. The M44 expressway, a motorway junction at the junction of the M5 motorway and the five main roads is currently being built by Hódút Építő Kft.

According to MagyarÉpítők, more than 1,500 people worked on the project, which was built with almost HUF 543 billion (EUR 1,31bn) of domestic funding over nine years.

More motorways to be widened to three lanes, M8 coming

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stressed that since 2010 the length of motorways has increased one and a half times. In the next few years, the M1, M3 and M7 motorways will be widened to three lanes, and the M8 motorway will be built, allowing people to travel between western and eastern Hungary without going through Budapest.

According to a press release issued by ÉKM for the press event, the 14-unit artificially-engineered section, which has just been handed over, has been built with the crossing national roads and dirt roads above the motorway. At the same time, the Cegléd-Szeged railway line has been routed under the planned motorway. As part of the development, the Csillik Rest at the beginning of the section has been equipped with motion-sensitive street lighting.

For those travelling in the direction of Budapest (on the left side of the section), parking spaces with solar shading brackets have been added to reduce the rest area’s overheads.