The project entails construction of the 14.4 km Budimír-Bidovce section of Slovakia’s D1 motorway and a 0.99 km section of the R2/R4 expressway between the Košické Oľšany and Hrašovík interchanges. Located north-east of the city of Košice, the road will help remove bottlenecks on Trans-European Transport Network infrastructure.
- 05 June 2019
The D1 motorway is the backbone road between the eastern and western Slovakia. The completed section between Budimír and Bidovce moved us closer to the motorway connection between Slovakia and Ukraine.
Included in the work are four interchanges, one roundabout, 23 bridge structures with a total length of 3 452.7 m, noise barriers with an average height of 4 m and a total length of 13 810 m, and 300 m of retaining wall.
The road surface has an overall area of 521 315 m², of which 330 266 m² is motorway, 15 525 m² is expressway, 110 068 m² is covered by interchanges and 65 456 m² is approach road. The total area of the bridges is 67 119 m², that of the noise barriers is 53 925 m², and that of the retaining walls – which are in a cutting between km 9.0 and km 9.3 – is 980 m².
Earthworks will be carried out, with the total volume of excavations coming to 1 322 044 m³. Of this, 971 996 m³ will be used for embankments, backfills and landscaping. The remaining 350 048 m³ will be placed in permanent landfills at km 7.2 and km 4.6 of the new section of the D1 – which have volumes of 97 000 m³ and 53 048 m³ respectively – and in a temporary 200 000 m³ landfill on the Šaca-Košické Olšany section of the R2.
The minimum gradient of the motorway is 0.3 % and the maximum is 4.5 % over a 1 472 m section. For the ascending sections, two additional lanes are planned: one from km 7.93 to km 10.93 on the right, and one from km 10.54 to km 12.84 on the left.
Continuing the existing motorway
The new section of the D1 will be a continuation of the existing Prešov-Budimír section. At the Budimír interchange, it will be connected to road I/20 and the northern approach road to Košice. At the Bidovce interchange, it will be connected to the II/576 Bidovce-Ďurkov road. It will link with the R2 via the Košické Oľšany interchange. The Hrašovík interchange will connect the R2 to road I/19 and road III/3324 via a roundabout.
Bridges covered by the project include a 560 m structure crossing the Torysa river and a flyover intersection between the D1 and the R2/R4, north-west of Košické Oľšany. The section of the D1 on the left bank of the Torysa will be built as far as possible from the flood plain.
Better east-west connections
By improving transport efficiency, the project is intended to cut the cost of transport between Slovak regions and between Slovakia and neighbouring countries, as well as generating business opportunities, jobs and economic growth.
Jobs will be created during the construction phase. The road will reduce the negative environmental impact of freight transport in built-up areas, while the high standards adopted for its design are expected to improve safety and prevent accidents.
The project is expected to contribute to the completion of the D1, helping create a supra-regional motorway network. Forming part of Slovakia’s main east-west axis connecting the regional centres of Trenčín, Žilina, Poprad, Prešov, Košice and Michalovce, the section of road will increase the capacity and improve the safety of the country’s east-west road links. It will be a component of European route E50, which links Brest, Paris, Nuremberg, Prague, Žilina, Košice and Uzhhorod, where it connects with the Ukrainian road network.
Another aim is to further develop the bypass around Košice – Slovakia’s second-largest city, with some 240 000 inhabitants. By taking transit traffic away from Košice, the new stretch of the D1 should reduce the negative environmental impacts of transport, smooth traffic flows, shorten journey times, cut the economic cost of passenger and goods transport, and increase comfort for road users.
Total investment and EU funding
Total investment for the project “D1 Budimír - Bidovce” is EUR 169 020 729, with the EU’s Cohesion Fund contributing EUR 143 667 620 through the “Integrated Infrastructure” Operational Programme for the 2014-2020 programming period. The investment falls under the priority “TO7 - Transport and energy networks”.