Holló Szilvia Andrea: Budapest's Public Works - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2010)

Developing utilities on doctor's orders

the Danube and the limited capacities of the existing sewer system, the sewage produced in most outlining areas could only by collected by laying separate sanitation sewer collecting mains. Normally, this was soon followed by the construction of a housing estate. For example the laying of the south trunk main was related to the construction of the József Attila Housing Estate. The problem of sewage treatment also had to be solved. That was why the construction, ín Torontói utca, of the South Pest wastewater treatment facility was begun, the plant starting operation in 1966 with a daily capacity of 30,000 cubic metres.

The sixties saw a boom of sewerage development on both sides of the Danube: in Buda, the reconstruction of the lower section of Ördögárok, the largest combined system of sewers of the capital, was completed. On the Grand Boulevard in Pest, the construction of Budapest’s underground railway necessitated the rebuilding of certain sections of the trunk mains. This involved the flattening of a 72-metre section of the trunk main at Blaha Lujza tér, which meant the lowering of the tunnel’s interior height and the extension of its width; also, the alignment of the Üllői út trunk main was shifted. Fascinated passers-by looked on as divers toting handheld cameras used the manholes concealed inside advertising pillars on the Grand Boulevard to descend into the sewer to check the system.

■ The condition of) the &ewer iyitem wad checked out by diven, 1965

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