‘There is light at the end of the tunnel!’, Minister of Construction and Transport János Lázár began his his latest Facebook post. The minister was referring to the completion of the twin tunnels on the two-lane section of the M85 expressway.
This is no short tunnel, as it measures 780 metres in length. To ensure safe and accident-free travel they have implemented 34 cameras, emergency and fire alarm buttons, traffic control LED boards, pavement temperature indicators, traffic counting devices, active pavement reflectors, light density sensors, ventilation fans, sound and light signalling devices, and loudspeakers.
The Minister highlighted that this is the first expressway tunnel in Hungary to be realized purely through state investment.
Following the trial operation of the Bécsi Hill (Bécsi-domb) tunnel, part of one of the largest domestic road construction projects of the year, and after the traffic authorization, soon there will be 11 expressways that reach the national border. In 2010, there were only three.
However, in the case of the M85, this is only conditional: as János Lázár revealed, the Austrians are not developing on their side, so there is no agreement on the border crossing point.
The contractor for the final section of the M85 expressway, which includes the tunnel, is the SDD Consortium. The project, initiated by the Ministry of Construction and Transport, includes not only the 780-metre twin tunnels but also the construction of a 4.2-kilometre four-lane road between the Fertőrákos junction and the Sopron national border, as well as the construction of the north-western Sopron bypass.
The project, which started in October 2020, has a total cost of 53 billion HUF. There is currently no information on when the new tunnel will be open to traffic, but once it is completed, vehicles will be able to pass through it at speeds of up to 110 kilometres per hour.
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