Bad news: Hungary’s busiest motorway to be partly closed during the holiday season

Contrary to previous plans, work on the M7 motorway will start this summer, and as a result, there will be periods when some lanes of the motorway will be closed, which will make travelling to Lake Balaton from Budapest more complicated. The works cannot wait any longer due to the poor condition of the roads.

The renovation of the M7 motorway in the summer is part of Hungary’s biggest motorway project, Világgazdaság reports. In the three years between 2023 and 2025, 538 kilometres of the 1,237-kilometre road that the Hungarian Concession Infrastructure Development Plc. (Magyar Koncessziós Infrastruktúra Fejlesztő Zrt., MKIF) will take over for operation will be renewed, with new asphalt replacing the damaged pavement, in several layers where needed.

In 2023, 19% of the total main road network was renewed, which is 3.6 million square metres, and this year another 20%, 4 million square meters is planned to be reconstructed. On the M7 alone, nearly 1.5 million square metres will be newly paved this year.

The deterioration of the M7 has reached such a level that the reconstruction works cannot be stopped even during the summer holidays, according to MKIF. Although this year, as last year, it was planned that there would be no work on the M7 motorway between Budapest and Lake Balaton (Balatonvilágos) during the holiday period, the deterioration of the road surface and the safety of the travelling public made renovation work unavoidable in several places.

Two-lane traffic will be ensured during the construction of the motorway

In order to minimise disruption to summer seasonal traffic, the works will be scheduled only on sections where three lanes are already open to traffic, and they plan on carrying these works out on less busy days.

In practice, this means that there will only be diversions and work on the roads from Tuesdays to Fridays in June and July, but not in August. Work will only be carried out on the side towards Budapest, between Székesfehérvár and the M0 motorway. This way two lanes of traffic will be ensured, 24.hu reports.

However, rest areas on junction branches will also be renovated, which means possible closures. They also stated that it will be inevitable that work will continue on the other side of the motorway, towards Lake Balaton in the autumn.

The reason given for their current decision is that the average lifespan of the asphalt pavement on the section of the M7 motorway between Érd and Székesfehérvár is more than 15 years and the condition of this section of M7 has deteriorated rapidly in several places recently.

MKIF promises to continue to provide advanced warning of diversions on their Facebook page and website, as well as informing travellers via Útinform.

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