Danube bridge and tens of kilometres of road network in and around Mohács - contractor selected

The decision has been made regarding Hungary's newest, 21st bridge over the Danube, to be built at Mohács – noticed by vg.hu after published in the Electronic Public Procurement System.

According to this, the winning and cheapest bid – out of three applicants – was submitted by Duna Aszfalt Zrt., and the giant investment is one of the most significant infrastructure development packages in the history of our country, worth approximately 294.96 billion forints.

As previously reported by our newspaper here, the Speciálterv Kft. will be the construction plans are ready – the major subcontractors involved in the project were Főmterv Zrt. (river bridge) and Uvaterv Zrt. (independent structural engineering).

The bridge is of particular importance not only for locals but also for freight traffic: it will help to relieve the Baja bridge, but

it will also play a key role in the southern, national road ring, which will connect the radial expressways and the industrial centres of the cities around the southern border (Pécs, Mohács, Baja, Szeged).

The crossing will also be an important route for traffic from the Balkans.

The public procurement was announced in September 2023 by Építési és Közlekedési Minisztérium in September 2023. According to the data available at the time, the project can be divided into three main parts, which Duna Aszfalt will have a total of 50 months to implement.

Nearly 20 kilometres of track and three bridges to be built opposite Paks

In the first phase, a new 2×1 lane road of almost 20 km (which may be upgraded to a 2×2 lane road in the future) will be built from the main road 51 near Csátalja on the lowland side to Újmohács. This will include the construction of a roundabout at the kinduló point of road 51 and near Sárhát, while a four-lane at-grade junction with 2×2 lanes and a divided carriageway could be built at Újmohács. Here, the 3 road bridges, 1 six-span structure with 28.1 + 35.4 + 3×45.4 + 33.1 m span, 2 two-span structures with 12.79 m and 35.52 m spans and a cycle path will be constructed from the new Danube bridge, according to the tender documents.

Three continuous bridges will be built over a total of 756 metres over the Danube and the floodplains

In the second phase, the bridge itself will be built, with two floodplain bridges and a river bridge to cross the Danube, totalling 756 metres. The structural system of the bridges is planned to be a two-span steel arch bridge with a steel deck, closed box girder cross-section with struts and arches, an orthotropic steel deck and a double-sided suspension with a grid arrangement.

The total structural height is 2.75 metres, with the arches inclined towards each other and connected by an X-grid system of cross-ties. The Danube bridge will also be built as a 2×2 lane divided carriageway road with a cycle track overpass.

 Getting to the motorway will be easy

In the third phase, an 8.5 km long 2×2 lane divided carriageway road will be built on the Transdanubian side of the bridge, connecting to the M6 motorway. The first part of this will be completed up to the roundabout junction of roads 56 and 57, 2.7 km along the existing municipal road, after its demolition. This section will also include a multi-lane structure over a public road and siding, a three-lane structure over siding, a two-lane structure over an industrial estate road and a cycle underpass. Also in the third phase, the current 2×1 lane road 57 will be upgraded to a 2×2 lane divided carriageway from the roundabout to the M6 motorway, which will be widened to a two-lane turbo roundabout, but will also include

• three new turbo roundabouts,
• three two-supported artefacts,
• as well as a two-post cycling artefact.