Areas on both sides of Budapest’s iconic Chain Bridge will be revamped at a cost of 1 billion forints (EUR 3.1m), a sum previously allocated for widening the bridge (a project that has since been scrapped), head of the Prime Minister’s Office Gergely Gulyás and Budapest Mayor István Tarlós said in a joint statement on Friday.

The government initially allocated 6 billion forints for revamping the bridge and decided last October to provide an additional 1 billion forints for widening the bridge’s paths, the statement said.

Examinations carried out by experts of the Budapest Technical University revealed that expanding the pedestrian paths would require an additional strengthening of the bridge structure and this would raise the cost.

In line with a proposal by the council for the development of public areas, the government decided on Tuesday to scrap the expansion project and spend 1 billion forints on revamping areas on both sides of the River Danube instead, the statement added.

Source: MTI