The main road to Budapest Airport was built 80 years ago and has hardly been touched since. Renovation and expansion have long been needed, an issue now addressed by the Budapest Development Centre. The project has just been put out to tender and is hoped to begin reasonably quickly.
Dávid Vitézy, CEO of the Budapest Development Centre, has just announced that a tender has been issued for the renovation and widening of the main road to the airport, marking the beginning of the process of this long-overdue development. It was the end of 2018 when the Government suggested that ‘detailed preparatory studies and a feasibility study’ have been carried out'.
The overhaul of the airport link is not just about road traffic but also large-scale urban development, as investment should improve transport across south Pest, as well as connections for buses, pedestrians and cyclists. A key aspect of planning is to give priority to public transport and significantly improve transport safety.
The winner of the tender will have to prepare an construction plan and documentation by 2022. Once approval is granted, work may begin on the road from Határ út metro station to the city limits. This should create a single main road with at least two lanes in each direction, passing multi-level railway and road crossings. At the junction of Üllői út, and at the end of the inner road between Határ út and Kőbánya-Kispest metro stations, the single-lane road remains.
Multi-level road-rail hubs include the last junction along Üllői út closer to the city limits. The overpass at the junction with Csévéző utca will be expanded with a new lane in each direction. A new cycle lane is earmarked for Gyömrői út.
Applicants must prepare their blueprint in such a way that development does not increase vehicle numbers into the centre of Budapest, and priority is even to improve traffic safety so that the number of accidents on the renovated, expanded road is reduced.
