Today’s opening to traffic of the Mura Bridge with all its access roads marks the finalization of the full-profile motorway along the pan-European transport corridor 5b, which is of great importance because it makes it possible to travel from Croatia's largest port, Port Rijeka via Zagreb to Budapest within only 5 hours. This stated the Croatian Minister of the Sea, Transport and Infrastructure Božidar Kalmeta who opened today along with the Hungarian Minister of Transport, Telecommunications and Energy Pal Szabo the Goričan-Letenye section and the Mura Bridge on Highway A4 Zagreb-Goričan and Highway M7 Budapest-Letenye.
The construction of a 1.4 km long access road and the 216 meters long bridge on the Croatian side as well as a 1 km long access road on the Hungarian side will add, Kalmeta concluded, to the increase of transport flow and security, the development of tourism as well as to economic growth in general for both countries and the neighboring areas.
Kalmeta also pointed out how the construction of such a demanding project showed that two countries are well able to work together successfully. He also mentioned the nearby mutual border crossing which will become sufficient once the Republic of Croatia enters the EU.
The construction of this almost 500 km long motorway from Rijeka to Budapest will allow the Hungarian economy to come closer to Europe and the rest of world via the Port Rijeka as well as a stronger development of border regions, concluded the Hungarian minister Szabo. He also suggested that considering the fact that Hungary is the 3rd largest foreign investor within Croatia’s economy, it would be only natural for Croatia to now intensify its investments within the economy of Hungary.
The construction costs for the 1.4 km long access road from Goričan to the Mura Bridge amounted up to almost EUR 7 million and the bridge itself up to EUR 8 million. Both countries participated equally in covering the construction costs.
The Mura Bridge consists out of two 15 m wide bridges which are divided by a span of 80 cm.