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