Szablyár Péter: Step by step - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2010)

Stairways to nothingness

belonged to the busiest system of flyover roadways in Hungary. Next to the reinforced concrete strips of the Kacsóh Pongrác út flyover shuttling above and below one another were two spiral stairways which lead to nowhere in particular. The function was unclear right at the time they were first built, as the flyover was not designed to carry pedestrian traffic at all. After a few decades of suspended animation, both stairways were demolished when the first overall maintenance and reconstruction job was carried out on the flyover.

Then there is that other, infamous, flyover of the city at Nyugati tér. It caused a resounding scandal when the two halves of the supporting structure made by assembling pre-stressed concrete units on location, and begun at opposite ends turned out to be misaligned. The stairs led up to this unlucky structure, which was meant to double as a combined motor and pedestrian flyover upon which one could walk over the Grand Boulevard to descend at the other end via the terrace of the department store there. The footpath, however, was closed off with chains and warning signs practically the moment the flyover was officially opened. But then why should one want to cross in such a way? Nevertheless, the streetwise public soon found an alternative use for the stairway on the side nearest the Western Station. The construction, built at no insignificant cost with glass-plated banisters, expen■ For what purpose can it have been built?

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