R7 expressway (Slovakia)

Expressway R7
Expressway R7
Rýchlostná cesta R7
	Completed Under construction Planned
Route information
	Part of E575
Length	223.8 km (139.1 mi) Completed: 32.2 km (20.0 mi); Planned: 191.6 km (119.1 mi)
Major junctions
From	D1 Bratislava - Nivy
	D4 Bratislava - South; R3 near Horné Semerovce (planned);
To	R2 near Lučenec (planned)
Location
Country	Slovakia
Regions	Bratislava Region, Trnava Region, Nitra Region, Banská Bystrica Region
Major cities	Bratislava, Dunajská Streda, Nové Zámky, Lučenec
Highway system
	Highways in Slovakia;

R7 expressway is an expressway (Slovak: rýchlostná cesta) in Slovakia which, when completed, will connect Bratislava, Dunajská Streda, Nové Zámky, Veľký Krtíš and Lučenec. The total length of the expressway will be 223.8 kilometres (139.1 mi), of which 32.4 kilometres (20.1 mi) is in operation, with 191.6 kilometres (119.1 mi) planned. The R7 will be concurrent with the European road E575 on the section from Bratislava to Dunajská Streda.

Route description

The R7 starts in Bratislava and will end near Lučenec. The route starts in Bratislava in an intersection with the D1 motorway, and it continues through its other intersection with the D4 motorway and around the towns of Dunajská Streda, Nové Zámky, Veľký Krtíš and Lučenec, where it ends in an intersection with the R2 expressway. Along with the R8 expressway it is the only expressway whose route is not even partially based on plans from before 1989. With the current intentions of the Ministry of Transport, the completion of the entire expressway cannot be expected before 2050.

Chronology

Plans for the R7 date back to the 1990s, after independence from Slovakia a two-lane express road was envisaged. The preparation of the project was approved by the Slovak Government on the 26 June 2003. In October 2005, a comprehensive technical study was prepared, followed by the preparation of documents and variant solutions for routing individual sections for environmental impact assessment. The opinions for the first sections were issued by the Slovak Ministry of Environment in May 2009.

The western part of the R7 was part of a PPP project awarded to Spanish construction company Cintra on 1 February 2016. On 20 May 2016, the concession contract was signed, and a financial close was reached on 22 June 2016, covering the construction of 32.1 kilometres (19.9 mi) of the R7 between Bratislava and Holice. The contract also included construction of the D4 around Bratislava.

Construction began on 24 October 2016 with the ceremonial stone tapping in the presence of the Minister of Transport Árpád Érsek.^[1] The first two sections from the Bratislava-South intersection (D4xR7) to Holice were opened on the 19 July 2020.^[2] On 2 October 2021, the remaining section near Bratislava opened, a 6.3 kilometres (3.9 mi) long stretch from the D1 to the D4 along the Slovnaft oil refinery.^[3]