The Largest Motorway Project in a 100 Years Announced

The city of Esztergom, located north-west to Budapest

“We met with the mayor of Esztergom, Ádám Hernádi, and his team at the Esztergom stop of the rural development tour. We are connecting the city to the national transport network with a number of transport infrastructure developments, including the six-lane M1 motorway, the construction of the M100 motorway and a road renovation worth around one billion forints”, announced the Minister of Construction and Transport at a press conference on Thursday.

The widening of the M1 motorway to six lanes between Budapest and Győr will start in August 2025. The 800 billion forint (about 2 billion euro; 1 EUR = 404 HUF) investment will be the largest motorway construction project in 100 years.

János Lázár announced that the entire 78 kilometer section could be completed by the beginning of 2029. He added, that the M100 road will also be built, which is planned to be a two-lane motorway with no stopping lanes. The project will be divided into three sections: the first will run from the M1 to Zsámbék, the second from there to Kesztölc (both are settlements on the way from Budapest to Esztergom) and the third from there to Esztergom, Northern Hungary. The middle section will involve three tunnels and the bridging of several valleys. The cost of the project is estimated at 500 billion forint (1,2 billion euro).

Construction of the M100 could start as early as the spring of 2026. Along the route, 650 plots of land are to be purchased, of which 250 have already been bought by the state.

Minister of Construction and Transport János Lázár (R) and Mayor Ádám Hernádi; Photo: MTI/Bodnár Boglárka

János Lázár stated that building the M100 motorway would require a new Danube bridge. They also plan on constructing dams along the river that could serve as protection against the floods. The minister pointed out that the construction of the first phase of the dam protecting Esztergom is currently under way, which will be one and a half kilometers long.

In 2010, the length of the motorway network in Hungary was 1,273 km, which will be increased to 2,000 km by 2026,

said János Lázár. He pointed out that today it takes 1 hour 4 minutes by train to get from Esztergom to the center of Budapest. Before the line was renovated, 2.5 million journeys were made on the line every year, and 7 million in 2024 thanks to the national and county concession.

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