Hungary to improve roads and invest in highways

Hungary’s huge highway programme will see close to €161 million being spent on upgrading some 500km of the country’s network. Hungary’s Ministry of National Development (NFM) plans for the work to commence in the first half of 2015 and completed by the second half of the same year. The cost of the work will be covered from EU funds in line with the country's Transportation Operative Programme (KOZOP). The work is needed as data from Hungary’s national road information source, Orszagos Kozuti Adatbank, reveals that 64% of the road network suffers from poor quality surfaces. In all this amounts to some 20,000km of roads being in very poor condition. Around 20.8% of Hungary’s national roads feature a poor surface quality. Only 6.5% of roads are considered adequate, with just 8.2% of the network featuring good quality surfaces. A figure of €3.21 billion has been suggested as being necessary to rehabilitate the 31,000km of roads requiring attention.