N. Kósa Judit - Szablyár Péter: Underground Pest - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2002)
The catacombs of the 21st century - underground car-parks
Despite the fact that per-car costs stand at four million forints, several underground car parks have been made in recent years or are currently under construction. Around these sub-surface garages traffic increases considerably (due to cars arriving and leaving), the levels of sub-soil waters rise in the wake of construction work, and the fumes emitted by ventilation ducts pollute the air. For that reason, would-be owners are obliged to have a pollution analysis made. The construction of underground car parks is also preceded by thorough tests of soil mechanics. An underground car park can be envisaged as a "box" sunk under the surface, whose insulated body dams the subsoil waters, the free flow of which was unimpeded before but now gives the box such buoyancy as the sea does to a ship. That is why reinforced concrete walls are sunk into the required depths before excavation of the working pit, which is then carried out by the removal of the rock or earth from among these special walls, which is followed by the preparation of an 80-100 cm thick base plate that will support the weight of the garage and the building above it. If necessary, the walls are fastened to their environment with giant rock screws and then the water-resistant insulation of the "box" is prepared. It is only then that the structures containing the exit and entry driveways, the stairwells and ventilation ducts can be built. If no building is to be raised above the garage, then the roof of the uppermost storey is insulated in such a way that lawn, trees and bushes can be planted above it. What is in evidence above the surface is no more than the exit, entry and a few air vents. Following several abandoned plans for underground car parks in Buda (Corvin tér, Lovas utca), a sub-surface garage for 384 cars was built near the Southern Railway Station (Kosciusko Tádé utca). Begun in the last century, two large underground car parks will be completed in 2002 in the inner city of the Pest side. One is being built by the municipality of District V in the square outside St. Stephen's Basilica. In this five-storey underground car park, cars will be placed in containers by special machinery, a method allowing for the storage of more cars in the same space and making the service safer, too. Thus 404 cars will find a parking spot in one of the busiest districts of the inner city. A four-storey underground car park is being built in Szabadság tér by an Austrian company. This one will hold 811 cars using a conventional system of storage. And that is only the beginning — preparations are underway for the construction of new underground car parks near the Central Market Hall in 38
