M4 motorway (Hungary)

This article may be expanded with text translated from the corresponding article in Hungarian. (May 2018) Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the Hungarian article. Machine translation like DeepL or Google Translate is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Consider adding a topic to this template: there are already 530 articles in the main category, and specifying|topic= will aid in categorization. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Hungarian Wikipedia article at [[:hu:M4-es autópálya (Magyarország)]]; see its history for attribution. You should also add the template {{Translated|hu|M4-es autópálya (Magyarország)}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

M4 motorway
M4-es autópálya
Route information
Part of E60 / E79
Length	101 km (63 mi) 223 km (139 mi) planned
Major junctions
From	M0 in Budapest
Major intersections	M8 near Szolnok M35 near Berettyóújfalu
To	A3 at Nagykereki
Location
Counties	Pest, Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok, Hajdú-Bihar
Major cities	Budapest, Szolnok, Püspökladány
Highway system
Roads in Hungary Highways Main roads Local roads

The M4 motorway is a Hungarian motorway, which will, upon completion, connect Budapest to Oradea and further Romanian cities. The route will travel in Hungary through Cegléd, Szolnok, Karcag, Püspökladány, Berettyóújfalu, and Nagykereki before reaching the Romanian border.

History, plans and ongoing construction[]

The road's origins can be traced much further back in time - as far back as 1974, when the first section of the future motorway was opened. This section, from Albertirsa to Cegléd, served to bypass the older, congested Route 40, that passed through these towns. This was extended in 2005 to bypass Abony and Szolnok. The same year, the Törökszentmiklós bypass opened. On 6 July 2011, a bypass also opened at Kisújszállás. Most of these sections are only 1 lane per direction.

This route soon became congested, and the section going south of Szolnok was found to be unsuitable to upgrade to motorway status, so on 16 September 2013, a contract was signed regarding the new route of the motorway. This route would go northwards of Szolnok, crossing the Tisza rivers, and shortening the route of the motorway. Work will be done by Strabag, and the contract cost 10 billion Hungarian Forints. Since the motorway passes through an environmental area, protective fencing is to be installed on the new sections from Üllő towards Törökszentmiklós. Whilst this section was supposed to open by 2016, construction work was stopped on 30 June 2015, to investigate the companies who were building the road. Apparently, the project was submitted to the EU to be supported in 2013, but it never received approval. There was also the huge cost of the route - 4 Billion HUF per kilometer. The work on this section has restarted with a planned completion date of early 2022.

The M0-M4 interchange seen from the air, 20 June 2006. Notice the then-under construction section of the M0.

Preparatory work has started for the Törökszentmiklós-Kisújszállás-Karcag-Püspökladány-Berettyóújfalu section. This section envisaged an interchange with the M8 motorway, but the procurement procedure was abolished on 26 February 2014, leaving work halted on this section.

Sections finished or to be completed in 2020[]

The 10 km long Vecsés-Üllő bypass opened in 2004, completed up to motorway standards. This also helped to ease access into the Liszt Ferenc International Airport. However, this has left a gap between Albertirsa and Üllő, and the old road going through Monor soon became a bottleneck. This 29 kilometer long section of M4 was completed on February 7, 2020. In 2019, a section near Cegléd section was upgraded to a dual carriageway but so far it lacks the motorway status. An upgrade to that status is planned when the section between Cegléd and Abony is completed in the summer of 2020.

A 4-kilometer stretch of M4, near Berettyóújfalu, was inaugurated on December 20, 2018. This section serves to link the M35 motorway to Route 47.^[1]

The M4 as seen heading towards the Romanian border, near Derecske, 27 December 2018

Works also started in 2016 on the Berettyóújfalu-Nagykereki section, which will connect to the Romanian A3 motorway, towards Oradea, Cluj, Târgu Mureș and Bucharest. However, just like the work on the A3 motorway in Romania, they were stopped due to funding issues. In 2018, Hungary received up to 265 million Euros from the EU Cohesion Funds specifically to complete this section of the M4 expressway. It was opened on September 4, 2020.

Junctions, exits and rest area[]

This article contains a bulleted list or table of intersections which should be presented in a properly formatted junction table. Please consult this guideline for information on how to create one. Please if you can. (November 2021)

Distance from the Zero Kilometre Stone (Adam Clark Square) in Budapest in kilometres.

• The section between Budapest and Berettyóújfalu is expressway. The maximum speed limit is 110 km/h, with (2x2 lanes).
• The section between Berettyóújfalu and Nagykereki is motorway. The maximum speed limit is 130 km/h, with (2x2 lanes and stop lane).

km		Destinations	Route	Notes
18		Budapest		Connection to Budapest Introductory path of M4
19		Vecsés-nyugat	4	Western connection to Vecsés
21		Budapest International Airport
24		Vecsés-kelet, Ecser		Eastern connection to Vecsés
		M4-M0 interchange (Budapest bypass)	M0 / E60	Connection to Győr, Székesfehérvár, Pécs, Szeged and Nyíregyháza, Vác. The western terminus of European route E60
30		Üllő, Gyömrő
35		Monor-nyugat, Péteri		Western connection to Monor
41		Monor-kelet, Gomba		Eastern connection to Monor
49		Pilis, Monorierdő, Káva
52		Gerje rest area
56		Albertirsa, Dabas		Also serves as a connecting road to M5 / E75
63		Ceglédbercel
66		Cegléd-Öregszőlő		Connection to the Aquapark of Cegléd
69		Ceglédi rest area		MOL / MOL +
		Cegléd, Tápiószentmárton
70		Cegléd, Tápiószele
77		Abony-nyugat		Western connection to Abony
85		Abonyi rest area
89		Abony-észak, Újszász		Northern connection to Abony
93		Abony-kelet, Szolnok-nyugat		Eastern connection to Abony Western connection to Szolnok
		M4-M8 interchange	M8	Connection to the M8 motorway, towards Kecskemét.
99		Szolnok-észak, Jászberény		Northern connection to Szolnok
101		Zagyva (Bridge)
106		Szolnok-kelet, Besenyszög		Eastern connection to Szolnok
112		Tisza (Bridge)
115		Rest area
117		Törökszentmiklós-nyugat, Szajol	4	Western connection to Törökszentmiklós
125		Törökszentmiklós-kelet	4	Eastern connection to Törökszentmiklós
133		Fegyvernek,
145		Kisújszállás-nyugat, Kenderes	4	Western connection to Kisújszállás
154		Kisújszállás-kelet	4	Eastern connection to Kisújszállás
160		Rest area
165		Karcag, Füzesgyarmat
180		Püspökladány, Báránd Püspökladányi rest area	42
190		Kaba
197		Rest area
202		Hajdúszovát, Földes
208		Rest area
210		M4-M35 interchange	M35 / E79	Connection to the M35 motorway, towards Debrecen. The western terminus of European route E79 and of the motorway section. The eastern terminus of the expressway section.
215		Berettyóújfalu, Derecske
220		Körtvélyes rest area
226		Gáborján, Váncsod
230		Kengyeles rest area
237		Nagykereki, Pocsaj, Biharkeresztes
242		Nagykereki (H) – Borș II (RO) border crossing
A3 / E60 / E79 → to Oradea, Romania

•   Under construction
•   Planned section

References[]