2024. 02. 01..

The bridge between the villages of Drégelypalánk and Ipeľské Predmostie was destroyed in World War II, leaving a pedestrian walkway over the Ipoly as the only link between the two neighbouring communities – until now.

Although the works contract for the adjacent road on the Hungarian bank was signed on 29 July 2021, it came into force only three months later, after funding was secured. The rest of the year was taken up by administrative duties, pushing the start of works to February 2022 with initial tree cutting, bush clearing, topsoil removal and the required unexploded ordnance sweep.

Considering that the road runs through the Danube-Ipoly National Park, we had to comply with stringent environmental requirements in the construction phase. For instance, no haulage roads could be established outside the expropriated plots. Consequently, setting up a proper route as soon as possible was key to delivering materials and kicking off works on the bridge itself. Since the alignment of the road is under the reference flood level of the Ipoly river, “tucking” the embankment into geotextile was also a must. Despite the complications, we managed to hand over the 1100-m-long road together with the bridge on 20 September 2023.

Technical content

A total of ~1100 metres of road construction is involved, the first 260 metres of which resurfacing, the second pavement widening and reinforcement of 190 metres and the final 650 m of the a new road was constructed on the last 650 metres of the road.

The total volume over the entire section is ~6500 m3 earthworks and 2120 tonnes of asphalt were constructed. Flood protection due to flood protection 1450 m3 of hydraulic engineering stone was installed to protect the embankments. In a railway crossing ~60 m2 STRAIL elements were installed. Public Works Replacement of a 0.4 kV overhead line, and the replacement of a communications line owned by Magyar Telekom telecommunications network.