Three sections of expressway totalling 30 km on the periphery of Bratislava that were supposed to be opened at the end of April could be available to motorists by the summer. The R7 between Ketelec, Dunajska Lužna and Dunajska Streda as well as the D4 between Ketelec and Rovinka are already for permitting, according to the consortium that’s building them, but the construction authorities haven’t completed their inspections. The Slovak Minister of Transportation Andej Doležal said he’d been to inspect the project and confirmed that a summer opening was feasible. “The construction is nearly completed but there are portions that don’t meet safety standards yet,” he said.
A fourth section of the D4 between Rovinka and Ivanka was supposed to be completed by April but is also delayed. The minister says that work should be completed on it in the coming weeks and that a temporary use permit should then be issued for it. However, connecting the D1 and D4 motorways is proving so problematic that it could take until 2023 before the interchange is completed. The new infrastructure is a key component of improving road access to the Slovak capital as well as transit traffic heading to the interior of the country.
