A name that is a guarantee in road construction

„The Road 25, where we are essentially building a third lane (this project is currently SWIETELSKY – ed.) The mountainous route and forest environment made preliminary surveying and planning difficult. This required even greater discipline and continuous monitoring from our colleagues during construction in order to eliminate any inaccuracies.

„This is an impressive facility, which was larger than previous ones in terms of both duration and challenges. Almost every unit of our company left its mark on it: the building construction division built the bus station and the car park, our public utility engineers implemented the drinking water, sewage and rainwater drainage systems, and the staff of the Kaposszekcső chief engineering office carried out the asphalting and paving work. The Esterházy pedestrian and bicycle bridge, which was handed over as part of the junction, won the Bridge of the Year award, of which we are particularly proud. The crossing is a beautiful steel structure with a cable-stayed bridge and a fifty-metre pylon – it was a wonderful project,” summarised the regional director.

According to his list, they also built motorway bridges and railway overpasses – these are usually reinforced concrete structures, but some were made of steel. Among the projects currently underway, it is important to mention the Cserhalom Street transport and public space renovation project in Budapest's 13th district, where a road bridge and a disused railway bridge are being demolished and two new bridges are being built over the Rákos stream.

Innovations in road construction

The company is committed to the continuous development of digitalisation. The BIM team is constantly working to ensure that this software is used in as many projects as possible. Krisztián Honti also mentioned a few specific projects.

„We need to use 3D surveys in road development as well, as it makes our work much easier. When widening the mountainous Route 25, we purchased a laser scanner, which made it much easier and faster to create a terrain model, and then we were able to monitor the construction more efficiently.”

In addition, road builders have already worked on several projects using a measuring station-controlled finisher: for example, on the development of the Budapest-Balaton cycle path, and this is how the CKT layer of road 260 was built. „This is particularly useful for greenfield investments, as it requires less geodetic preparation. We just upload the digital file to the measuring station and the machine does its job almost by itself, levelling with an accuracy of 1-2 millimetres. This gives us a CKT base of such quality that we can asphalt it with confidence.”

The company has built strong pillars over the decades.

István Skultéty, Business Director, sees the competitiveness of SWIETELSKY in its wide geographical coverage and the expertise of its specialists.„With our sites, we are present in almost the entire country. We have asphalt mixers at eight locations, so we can participate in rural road development on better terms and more cost-effectively than other companies that would have to transport the asphalt from further away or purchase it at the construction site. Our colleagues maintain excellent personal and professional relationships with local authorities, and they are familiar with the mines and the smaller and larger material suppliers through their contacts with local investors and subcontractors. This is a great advantage when it comes to tenders and construction projects.”

The business director highlighted the company's team of experts. The infrastructure division currently employs around 270 people (including manual and intellectual workers). Their experienced, well-travelled engineers have made a name for themselves in the profession through numerous large-scale projects, and it is important for the company to retain them in the long term.

„Staff turnover is not typical for us. We have reliable, highly experienced construction teams who have been working together for many years, even decades, led by trustworthy foremen, site managers and project managers. This enables the road construction division to participate flexibly in both smaller and larger projects and to further expand our acquired knowledge together.”

Reliability is one of the main attractions

This is confirmed by customer satisfaction feedback and by the fact that the volume of warranty repairs is minimal at the company.

„Generally, there are no problems with deliveries. We strive to find the right solution and compromise beforehand, always opting for flexibility. We endeavour to meet deadlines without compromising on quality. We believe it is important that if we see that there are fewer resources and opportunities on the market, we offer our customers new alternatives, cheaper but high-quality technical solutions.”

The business director also mentioned that, compared to other similar companies, the parent company gives us a relatively high degree of entrepreneurial freedom. Flexibility is evident here as well.

Although our Hungarian division's turnover has declined slightly due to economic conditions in recent years, the Swietelsky Group has experienced significant growth in recent years.

This growth has also led to a demand among company executives for regulation and modern corporate management systems.  The company is currently undergoing a major digital transformation: the introduction of corporate management systems (SAP, iTWO, digital methodology, BIM) and the systematisation and rethinking of decision-making roles are providing us with a new management tool. All this means more documentation, but in return, we can obtain data and information about the work done so far more quickly and easily, and we can also monitor and map market processes better.

Together with Railway Technology

There are also several projects in which SWIETELSKY Magyarország Kft. works together with its sister company, SWIETELSKY Vasúttechnika Kft.. The two leaders agree that the cooperation is effective and beneficial, as they have similar corporate structures and complement each other. The shared IT system also helps in this regard.

„For industrial facilities or even public investments involving complex tasks – such as railway construction alongside station building, utility installation, landscaping, road improvements, and railway and road bridge construction – our company can handle all of this in-house. Together, we can offer investors a much better professional proposal for a given project.”

The two companies" joint completed projects include the development of the Csepel port, the Kaposvár intermodal hub, and, of course, their largest joint project, the reconstruction of the M3 metro line.

„We are currently working together on several public procurement projects, and we have high hopes for the future. We would be delighted to participate in the construction of the Gubacsi railway bridge, the new North and South Balaton railway stations, the Almásfüzitő-Komárom railway, and the development of the Budapest tram network.”

The private sector has grown in importance

Over the past two years, there has been a noticeable decline in public works projects in the industry, particularly road development projects. István Skultéty, Business Director, confirmed that in view of the current situation, SWIETELSKY is opening up even more to private investment, although the company has already proven itself in this segment. „If a previous private investor places another order with us, that is very good feedback for us. We have many partners with whom we have been working for a long time because we can offer them favourable price-value ratios in addition to the right quality. We are confident that municipal infrastructure investments will resume soon, that there will be more developments in Magyar Közút, and perhaps that there will be more and more tenders in Építési és Közlekedési Minisztérium.