Index – National – Will Christmas be the new Bridgeman?

“It would be good if a bridge in Budapest was renewed in each municipal cycle,” said Gergely Karácsony, who was asked about his first year as mayor in the InfoRádió Aréna program. As discussed in our review article, the issue of the status of the Chain Bridge has accompanied a strong explosion in recent months. Gergely Karácsony told InfoRádió when the renewal is expected to be completed, but also spoke about

because they are both in very bad shape.

Chain of tensions

After a long tug-of-war between the capital and the government, in July the Board of Directors of the Budapest Transportation Center approved the launch of a conditional public procurement procedure for the construction of the Chain Bridge. Another obstacle was the fact that the Public Procurement Authority withdrew the public procurement notice for repair. The reason was that BKK would have issued the tender with a reference period of ten years, but according to the law, reference works of more than eight years cannot be taken into account.

Then, in August, BKK announced in an announcement that a tender for the construction of the Chain Bridge had been published in the Official Journal of the European Union. According to the schedule outlined, BKK can enter into a contract with the contractor in February 2021 and work can start in March.

Although fourteen economic operators expressed their interest after the call for tenders, only four finally submitted bids. Gergely Karácsony admitted in InfoRádió: indeed

In early August, he told RTL Klub Híradó: he fears that the government will only deliver the 6 billion guilders promised for the renovation if the work can be carried out by a company they love.

All roads lead uphill. How much it will ultimately cost the inhabitants of Budapest to renovate the Chain Bridge could easily be decided at a dinner in Felcsút

He said.

Half round and time

He had told InfoRádio with much more caution that

Speaking about costs, he noted that the capital had enough leeway to put half of the eight billion guilders needed into the bridge renovation project with its own resources.

We asked the government to provide more than 4 billion guilders out of the previous 6 billion, and then we could have closed public procurement. After all, the government did not provide that additional support, which we accept, and that is why the preparation of another public tender began.

Added.

The mayor confirmed that I would like to conclude the negotiations this year, so the contract could be signed at the end of this year and the work could start early next year.

We are practically on the schedule we originally set, and we have no reason to doubt that the bridge will be completed in 2023, so 150-year-old Budapest can celebrate with a beautiful birthday present, the renovated Chain Bridge.

– said Gergely Karácsony.

In the July Index article, we listed what the Chain Bridge renovation contractor would do:

• rebuild the crosswalk and pedestrian sidewalks, improve its steel structures and corrosion protection, restore and renovate pedestrian barriers,
• professionally restore the stone lions on the Buda and Pest sides, to rebuild the missing monumental elements,
• bridge design with new LED technology, variable spectrum street lighting,
• the establishment of a pedestrian crossing on the north and south sidewalks of the Pest bridgehead to ensure safe traffic,
• widen pedestrian underpasses at bridge heads, rebuild stairs,
• settle, destroy debris and munitions in the Danube riverbed around the bridge, modernize navigation signals.

The new bridge is not the most important

Gergely Karácsony spoke at InfoRádió not only about the Chain Bridge project, he stated that we have to go further, because both the Petőfi Bridge and the Árpád Bridge are in such a state that they need to start planning their renovation. According to the mayor, it would be good if a bridge in Budapest was renewed in almost every municipal cycle. He also stabbed the former leadership of the city of Fidesz and his predecessor, István Tarlós, when he added that this rate had not been maintained in the last two cycles.

Now the renovation of the Chain Bridge has started, but the planning of the renovation of the Petőfi Bridge, if we can provide the resources, we have to start

He is stressed.

When asked about the mayor, the mayor also said that he did not plan to build a new bridge in the capital, because according to the division of roles, the state should build new bridges.

“The government has the ambition to build the Galvani Bridge,” he drew attention. He also shared his concerns about it: at the Budapest Public Development Council meeting, the capital city municipality was able to offer a partnership on the condition that the Galvani Bridge between South Buda and South Pest, which has been on the agenda since 1980 , significantly reduce traffic in the city center. The capital, on the other hand, fears:

In the Index, we wrote that civilians were also concerned about the route on the Pest side of the new boulevard planned for the Galvani Bridge. The Budapest Public Development Council will decide before the end of the year on the final route and technical implementation of the drainage road network to be built on the Pest side of the new Danube Bridge.

By the way, Gergely Karácsony stated in a recent interview with the Index that

because he doesn’t see the money needed for this in the state budget. At the same time, he said that he would prefer, for example, that the Árpád Bridge or the Petőfi Bridge be renovated,

because it is a hundred times more important than building new bridges.

He also pointed out to the Index that no bridges had been renovated during the time of István Tarlós.

They are in a catastrophic state. The Chain Bridge issue will be resolved in the near future, but we must continue with the Petőfi and Árpád bridges

– to our newspaper.

Stubble omissions must also be remedied

The Petőfi Bridge, completed in 1937, was not renovated until 1980 since its reconstruction after World War II. Already at the time of the previous city administration, in 2011, an investigation found that it needed to be renovated as soon as possible. The cost of the necessary work was estimated at 10 billion HUF,

Like Gergely Karácsony now, István Tarlós pointed to the previous management of the city, according to the White Paper that summarizes the legacy of the Demszky era, in addition to the reconstruction of the Liberty Bridge and the Margaret Bridge.

At the time, it was estimated that it could take at least two years before they could begin renovating the Petőfi Bridge. It did not happen, at the beginning of March 2016, pieces of stone and reinforced concrete the size of a brick fell from the Petőfi bridge to the lower quay of Buda, fortunately no one was injured.

Shortly afterwards, Népszabadság wrote that the Petőfi bridge needed an immediate renovation. In Budapest Közút Zrt., It was planned that the renovation plans could be completed by the summer of 2016, but István Tarlós stated that the Chain Bridge must be renovated first. As is already evident, this did not happen before the 2019 municipal elections.

In May 2020, a social consultation was launched with the aim of a broader dialogue to avoid the complex renovation of the Petőfi Bridge and Boráros Square, taking into account the pedestrian traffic of the new planned HÉV underground stop.

Ferenc Friedl, Director of Innovation at the Budapest Transportation Center, told InfoRádió: Curricula are currently being prepared, after which the preparation of licenses and construction plans can begin, depending on resources.

According to the 2011 survey, only the Árpád Bridge and the Lágymányosi Bridge (called Rákóczi Bridge since 2011) had a satisfactory technical condition, but as of 2016 the complete reconstruction of these was also marked as an urgent task.

(Cover image: Gergely Karácsony speaks at the opening ceremony of the 2019 EP elections on April 13. Photo: István Huszti / Index)