Coronavirus, war, rising prices, asbestos - how can a giant project be successfully continued amidst all this?
Our company started the construction of 9 stations that make up the middle section of the M3 metro in Budapest back in 2019. The change of mayor that occurred in the meantime did not hinder the project; our company is cooperating well with the new team - said Árpád Bognár, managing director, to Magyar Építők.
The biggest challenge of the reconstruction of the M3 metro is that an existing, 40-year-old infrastructure needs to be rebuilt, which has visibly come with numerous difficulties in both the northern and southern sections. During the renovation work that began five years ago, the contractors faced many unforeseen challenges (e.g.: the presence of previously unknown asbestos-containing construction materials), which required significant additional costs and time. The management of these difficulties was greatly aided by the fact that our company has professionals in the contractor team who have metro construction experience - the business unit is led by Béla Stipich, who participated in the construction of the M3 back in the day.
The current challenges and complicating factors, such as COVID and the Ukrainian crisis, do not provide any relief for us in terms of fulfilling the contract.
“For now, we live our lives as if the Ukrainian crisis does not provide any exemption in terms of our obligations.”
"The 9 stations of the middle section of the M3 reconstruction, which has been ongoing since 2017 and consists of an extremely large number of parts - despite the halt in track construction and the additional work related to asbestos removal - could be financed from the originally planned 86.6 billion forints, along with the appropriate reserve, until the outbreak of the Ukrainian crisis.” – stated Árpád Bognár.
It is still unclear what the consequences of the war will be regarding the metro renovation.
"The deadline is a sensitive issue because Swietelsky Vasúttechnika Kft., which is carrying out track construction on the middle section of the M3 metro, has already indicated to the investor BKV in recent weeks that the Russian-Ukrainian war could affect the work, among other things, due to the impossibility of procuring steel materials previously supplied from Ukraine, as well as the increase in transportation costs."
In any case, the handover of the middle 3K station in May marks a milestone in the renovation of the M3 metro.
The full interview with our managing director is available on the Magyar Építők website.
