Municipality Entrusts Mayor With Gov't Negotiations About Chain Bridge Renovation

  • 14 Jun 2018 7:30 AM
  • Hungary Matters
Municipality Entrusts Mayor With Gov't Negotiations About Chain Bridge Renovation
At a special session of the municipal assembly, representatives asked Budapest Mayor István Tarlós to negotiate with the government on providing supplemental central funding for the renovation of Chain Bridge, the Castle Hill Tunnel and Clark Ádám Square.

In a unanimous vote, the assembly backed the proposal to speed up the renovation project.

In April, the assembly decided that the first phase would involve the renovation of the bridge and the tram, road and pedestrian underpass on the Pest side with the 16.4 billion forint (EUR 51.2m) cost paid from the municipality’s 2018 budget.

The assembly also planned for a second phase to renovate the tunnel and Clark Ádám Square on the Buda side, to be paid for from the municipality’s 2022-2024 budget. If central supplemental funding is approved, the renovation would begin in 2019 and all parts of the project would be completed by 2021-2022.

Prior to the session, the opposition Socialist Party called on Tarlós to drum up the resources necessary for speeding up the planned renovation of the capital’s iconic Chain Bridge so that the project takes place over 2.5 years instead of five as originally planned.

Socialist representative Csaba Horváth told a press conference that Budapest residents pay 20 billion forints (EUR 62.5m) in taxes each day, and the mayor should seek a quarter of this amount from the government in order to accelerate the renovation project.

Márta V. Naszályi, an opposition Párbeszéd party representative, said at a separate press briefing that it was worth examining whether the bridge should be eventually be restricted to pedestrians and cyclists.

MTI Photo: Balogh Zoltán

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