The largest road rehabilitation programme in the country is being carried out according to a coordinated matrix

To the outside observer, you would never guess the scale and complexity of the work behind the comprehensive upgrading programme for Hungary's motorways. The planning and execution of this historic series of road upgrades presents some exciting challenges, which we discussed with Magyar Koncessziós Infrastruktúra Fejlesztő Zrt.'s Development Coordination Director, responsible for the maintenance and operation of 1,237 kilometres of motorway.

A highly complex iterative process to create a major maintenance programme

As a starting point, Fruzsina Benedek outlined that MKIF Magyar Koncessziós Infrastruktúra Fejlesztő Zrt. is responsible for the operation and maintenance of the existing motorway network and the design, development and construction of new sections under contract with the Hungarian state. "The former includes ongoing work such as road inspection, vegetation maintenance, drainage cleaning, local pavement repair (potholing in common parlance), barrier washing and so on; and damage repair after accidents and incidents," he pointed out.

The other big area of work is planning, development and construction. Currently, planning and upgrading tasks are being carried out which MKIF Zrt. lays down each year in advance in the so-called Major Maintenance Programme. This is received from them by the State, which concessions the motorways, on 1 December of the previous year, and the programme is then adopted by 31 March at the latest.

"This four-month interval shows that a very complex iteration process is needed to produce an annual programme that is appropriate for all aspects and all actors," the director pointed out.

Once levelling is complete, the extensions can start

The direction of the tasks to be included in the programme will be determined by the upgrading work that is currently the company's primary obligation. The roads, structures and their connecting facilities that will be taken over by the concessionaire in 2022 are a mixed picture in terms of condition, modernisation, delivery date and even technology. "We have roads where the average age of the pavement is more than 15-25 years, while the life of a wearing course is usually ten years," he said.

However, the MKIF Zrt. is required to provide a uniform level of service on the roads. "That is why it was included in our contract that we have to carry out the upgrading of 538 kilometres of the sections taken over that are not in a satisfactory condition during the first period until 31 August 2025. After that, we will be able to start the major upgrades, which will involve the widening of the M1, M7 and M3 motorways and the construction of new sections."

His words also revealed what will be one of the main benefits of the leveling up. "Once we have levelled up, we will be able to provide a consistent level of service for travellers.

In addition to providing a higher level of service to travellers, such a road network also allows for a predictable schedule of maintenance tasks and costs, and generates predictable work from the given layering and technology. This can also be planned years in advance for the interventions that need to be built on top of each other."

Travel comfort and traffic safety parameters are regularly measured

The annually defined Major Maintenance Programme is based on the results of regular pavement condition measurements in addition to the levelling tasks. "We look at a particular section of road along a number of parameters, including travel comfort, traffic safety - i.e. how deep ruts it has and its skid resistance - and the load-bearing capacity of the pavement as a parameter of its service life." Of these, the load capacity is measured every five years at most, while the ride comfort and traffic safety measurements are carried out annually.

All these measurement results are supplemented by observations recorded by road inspectors. This may be the case when an unexpected, significant pavement defect occurs due to an extreme weather event. At the same time, it also happens that during levelling work, after the upper layers have been removed, unforeseen defects are found in the base layer. as was recently the case on the M3 motorway. „As the programme could not be delayed, in the latter case, our colleagues worked through the night to resolve the unexpected additional work,” said Fruzsina Benedek.

Four yellow suits around a drill: less spectacular, but important!

He also explained the sampling needed for quality assurance, which is planned in coordination with the interventions. "The so-called Sampling and Compliance Verification Plan specifically indicates where and what minimum measurements the contractor's laboratory has to take. The tests can be divided into two categories: those that can be considered conventional and those derived from the concession contract, which test the 'performance' of the pavement from the road user's point of view. The former include asphalt tests, geodetic measurements or, in the case of bridges, for example, rip-rap tests. The latter are precisely the measurements against which the concession contract imposes quality requirements, i.e. travel comfort and traffic safety parameters such as longitudinal roughness, rutting or skid resistance, the adequacy of which must also be verified after the renewals."

He pointed out that if you see four people in yellow clothes standing around a drill on a 10-kilometre stretch of freshly paved road, looking at something, you are drilling a borehole to give engineers information about the asphalt layers that the road structure is made of. "It may seem like a less important and efficient way of working from a car going 130mph, but let's be clear that it's a very important part of the project. It's also about making sure that the roads are finished to the right quality by the deadline, because our aim is to ensure that once we've done something, we don't have to go back and resurface again."

In addition to this, the temperature of the asphalt is also measured regularly: "It has to meet the required temperature at the start of delivery, but we also have to check how much it has cooled down by the time it arrives. This can also affect the quality of the finished road."

MKIF also takes breaks for the benefit of road users

In addition to the above, the establishment and scheduling of the Major Maintenance Programme is also influenced by the so-called "closed periods". "On national holidays, public holidays and the day before and after, work that reduces road capacity (i.e. traffic restrictions) cannot be carried out, nor during major sporting events such as Formula 1."

In addition, the MKIF Zrt. will also voluntarily take breaks for the benefit of road users:

"This year, for example, we have ensured that there is no asphalting on the M1 and M7 in August, the peak holiday season. And on the side towards Lake Balaton, there was no scheduled asphalting on the main road during the holiday period, to make the lake more accessible."

A further constraint is the weather, and as part of this, winter operations, in which renovations have to be halted due to unsuitable weather conditions, and in which the engineering fleet has to be adapted and kept ready for possible snow clearance and de-snowing.

There is much to anticipate

However, the planning of tasks must also take into account the available means and capacities. "We have to anticipate the availability of the asphalt mixers, the same applies to the machine chains and the workforce capacity, and the operational tasks of the engineering departments involved also influence the planning. Anticipation also requires close cooperation with the contractor at the planning stage."

You also need to pay attention to how far the asphalt needs to be delivered to the finish line and how you can get there in time. "In the meantime, you also have to take into account that delivery trucks don't get a lead and may have to deal with traffic jams."

The time needed for the works is also an important factor, including the time needed for the delivery and technology required for the intervention in a given section, the time needed for the construction and dismantling of the traffic diversion and the construction of the diversion signs, and finally the restoration of the pavement markings and signs.

Those who drive into the diversion ignore an average of nine warnings

Perhaps few people realise it, but the time taken to build the diversions is not an insignificant factor: "To build a diversion order that complies with road regulations, including signs, clamps and temporary pavement marking, takes about two days, as does the demolition."

He added that, on average, a motorist will receive at least nine warning signs via KRESZ signs by the time they reach the lane departure point on a fixed or permanent diversion; not counting yellow pavement signs and lane markings. "People who go into our diversions ignore at least that many signs."

106 bridges renovated last year, 110 this year

A separate factor is the approximately 1,500 bridges and overpasses that are part of the MKIF Zrt. tracks, the levelling and maintenance of which involve special requirements. „We renovated 106 of these last year, and more than 100 bridges are scheduled for renovation this year. Among these, one of the country's largest structures, the Kőröshegyi Valley Bridge, is particularly noteworthy. where the replacement of the bearings will begin in September, which will involve a complete closure. Here, we need to replace 3 of the 38 existing bearings. Each of these weighs 10 tonnes and measures 2x2x0.35 metres.”

This includes the constant inspection of bridges. "The scheduled bridge inspections and the data they provide also influence where work is done and what interventions are needed."

All the commuter saw was that the road home was bad, but in the morning it was good.

The other areas managed by MKIF Zrt. present further challenges: "If we add the rest areas and junction branch roads to the main line, it means an additional 400-500 km on top of the existing 1200 km."

He added that the cleaning up of the nodes in the upgrading programme started this year.

"As part of this, we had just repaired one of our busiest motorway exits the night before the interview. We closed the exit at Székesfehérvár at 8pm, tarmaced it overnight and returned it to traffic at 6am. One commuter saw only that the road was bad on the way home the previous afternoon and good in the morning."

A further factor to be addressed in work planning and scheduling is the timing of works on roads not maintained by MKIF Zrt.. "Whether the improvements to roads managed by Magyar Közút or by private investors can affect our works through associated traffic. Last week, for example, Magyar Közút had to carry out an unplanned work on the M0, which caused the M1 to back up, but both road managers informed the public about the work." It is understood that MKIF Zrt. maintains an ongoing exchange of information with the other road management organisations.

Road inspectors continuously collect data on the roads

A very important help is that the MKIF Zrt. has a separate operating unit, which, in addition to carrying out daily maintenance tasks, is constantly patrolling the road sections with road inspectors. "All the data they detect on the roads is entered into an online database. It could be an accident, vandalism, an abandoned object, a localised pavement defect, a gully break. All of this can affect even the weekly plan, as there may be somewhere that needs immediate intervention."

The weekly plan, based on the annual programme breakdown, can also be influenced by observations made during works and interventions, as well as by the measurement results mentioned above, or even by information from motorists.

One thing is certain, change itself

As can be seen above, with a road network of this size, and with such a large-scale renovation project underway, flexibility is needed even with the most careful planning. "What we plan will almost certainly change by the time it is implemented, whether because of a calamity, the weather or a road defect discovered during the works."

The MKIF Zrt. was described by the Director as a living system in which there are no isolated tasks, but instead everything can affect everything. "If you touch the system anywhere, it can have a ripple effect anywhere."

He added that a change can also shift other work, but that there are strict limits to the amount of work that the company can do within the three-year timeframe.

Everything must be coordinated with everything else

To meet the above challenges, a complex organisation is responsible for the tasks, with close communication between its parts, involving engineering organisations, contractors and control laboratories. "In weekly co-operations, we agree on the work in progress, which is broken down from the annual plan into monthly, weekly and daily plans."

Although daily maintenance and programmatic levelling are organisationally separate in the company, the two processes can only be managed together. "Everything has to be coordinated with everything else, because we have to meet countless criteria and expectations in the course of the work."

From their news, you can factually retrieve what the target date was

In addition to the complexity of the tasks described above, the tight pace of levelling is also a challenge, which he specifically mentioned.

"There has never been a motorway resurfacing programme on such a scale: work is being carried out in dumps on several sections of the roads we manage. This unprecedented level of intervention is an unprecedented challenge for both travellers and the road industry."

He stressed that this year they are planning to renovate 20 percent of the main track, approximately 4 million square metres of surface (the figure is usually given in square metres because it is possible to calculate how much asphalt is needed - editor's note), which is why they are forced to keep to a tight schedule. "This is why, when we publish the reconstruction of a section at a given time, we also give the corresponding closure date, i.e. the duration of the traffic restrictions, which we cannot deviate from. We receive a lot of criticism for delaying the renovations, but we can factually retrieve from our news what the target date was, but the above may cause modifications to avoid having to intervene more than once." Even with the reduced volume in August, more than 2 million square metres have already been fully renovated this year, and milling work has exceeded 2.5 million square metres, meaning the target will be met by the end of the year.

From aggressive incidents to thank you, or what motivates you?

At the end of the interview, we also asked him what motivates him in a field with so much responsibility and challenges, but also with so many social expectations and criticism.

"This is Hungary's largest road rehabilitation programme, and anyone who is involved in a road section has never been involved in a project of this kind on a larger scale," was the clear answer. "This is an outstanding scale, even in Europe, and the road sector knows it and acknowledges it."

At the same time, society is not expected to provide motivational recognition. "People pay motorway tolls to get from A to B in the fastest and most comfortable way. Any element that they feel slows them down is literally perceived as an obstacle. Unfortunately, our colleagues are also pushed, spat on or hit the road signs with their vehicles. However, we do receive constructive professional comments and some thank us for our work."