Tóth László: Magyarország közútjainak története (Budapest, 1995)

Irodalom

Summary litis book gives an overview about the history of the Hungarian roads and bridges from the beginnings until 1960. The history of the period from 1960 until now will be described in the next volume. Oh the territory of the historic Hungary, the first stone roads were built by the soldiers of the Roman Empire. Some parts thereof can be seen even today. In that epoch there were stone roads on the confines of the Empire, in Pannónia and Dacia. Between the two provinces trade was performed with the cooperation of the barbaric people although there were no built roads there. On the territory of Hungary there were important trade roads between East and West, North and South in all periods of the history, but they were built with a hard surfacing only in the mountainous areas with local stone materials. In the Middle Ages the military roads were trade roads as well. The crossing-places of the rivers in the Carpathian basin have been since the ancient times in the same places where later the bridges were built. Ferries, wooden bridges, pontoon-bridges, iron and steel bridges co-existed in the period presented in this volume. In the desolate parts of the Great Hungarian Plain stone roads were built only after the completion of the railway network. T)\e first longer stretch of 300 km between Baja and Kisjenő was built by the Hungarian State between 1895 and 1899. Most such roads were built, however, after 1920 with macadam structures. In spite of this, asphalt roads have been built since 1864 in the towns. It was a Hungarian company which, together with a German finn, built the first rolled asphalt pavement of Germany in Stuttgart in 1908. Between the two World Wars the main roads were built with concrete pavement, e.g. the section between Budapest and Szeged of the London - Istanbul international highway, as well as other main roads. Since the XVIIIth century, the prominent personalities of the Hungarian road and bridge construction profession have been educated on French, German, English and American examples, also the training of the civil engineers in the Technical University was based thereon. Vie organisation of the road administration was created according to the Austrian pattern, and kept so until 1950. Tfte motor car came in general use after the first World War. Because of this and also due to the pressure of the great transit traffic, the period until the second World War can be remembered as the time of the intensive and successful modernisation of the principal roads. The Hungarian bridges were several times destroyed and the transport routes damaged by the storms of the history, the wars. This was even worse in the XXth century; thus, and because of the weakened economy, only a small part of the necessary funds could be given to the roads. A transitory upswing happened only in the sixties-seventies — but this is the subject of the Volume 2., but this is more significant than any other period. It can only be hoped that the Hungarian road network, transmitting persons, goods and ideas, will attain the requested European level of service. (Boldizsár Vásárhelyi) 165