In summer, MKIF will renovate a short stretch of the M7 to avoid rush hour traffic

Similar to last year, it was planned that there would be no scheduled works on the M7 motorway between Budapest and Lake Balaton (Balatonvilágos) during the holiday season. However, due to the deterioration of the road surface, i.e. in the interests of passenger safety, renovation has become unavoidable in several places, according to information provided on Wednesday by MKIF Magyar Koncessziós Infrastruktúra Fejlesztő Zrt.

The company, which maintains and develops a major part of the Hungarian motorway network, could not wait until autumn to carry out some of the work in the summer months.

All this despite the fact that several sections of the M7 motorway had already been modernised in the spring as part of the country's largest dual carriageway renovation programme before the summer break, so no work was planned for this period. In our recently published article, we presented the works and their results with detailed maps and a gallery.

How to avoid peak periods

Now the infrastructure manager has stressed:

To minimise disruption to summer seasonal traffic, the works will be scheduled to work only on sections where three lanes are already available to traffic, and only on less congested days.

In practice, this means that:

• there will be diversions and work only on Tuesdays to Fridays in June and July - not in August,
• we only work on the side towards Budapest, between Székesfehérvár and the M0 motorway,
• and only there if they can ensure two lanes of continuous traffic,
• but there will be times when work will be done at rest areas and junctions. In such cases, a closure is possible, but, as before, MKIF will inform you of this in advance and in good time.

However, they stressed that in the autumn it will be inevitable that they will continue to carry out their tasks on the side towards Lake Balaton.

Why work is needed

The average age of the asphalt pavement on the M7 motorway between Érd and Székesfehérvár is more than 15 years. Recently, the condition of this section of the road has deteriorated rapidly in several places. Therefore, as stated in the MKIF communication, the deteriorated pavement on this 54 km stretch of motorway needs to be replaced in the summer season in at least 8 km of lane length (lane length means: if both lanes (inner and outer) on both sides of a 1 km motorway section are renewed, 1*4=4km).

Hungary's largest road rehabilitation programme between 2023 and 2025

As mentioned above, the summer upgrading of the M7 is part of Hungary's biggest motorway upgrade.

In the three years between 2023 and 2025, 538 km of the 1,237 km of roads taken over by MKIF Zrt. for operation and renewal will be renewed, replacing the damaged pavement with new asphalt, if necessary in several layers.In 2023, 19% of the entire main line were renewed (3.6 million square metres), and this year another 20% are planned to be renewed (expected to be 4 million square metres). On the M7 alone, nearly 1.5 million square metres will be resurfaced this year.