Among cities of the county rank in Hungary, Miskolc also carried out a tender for the procurement of trams. For this, the upgrading of the tramway and its equipment and a car depot also had to be carried out. As commissioned by a Holding established by the Local Government of the City of County Rank of Miskolc and MVK Miskolc Városi Közlekedés Zrt., construction was awarded to COLAS-ALTERRA Kft., which engaged FŐMTERV to prepare all detailed designs. Novia Kft., RRM 21 Kft., Schön Architects Office and Zöldfény Kft. participated as subcontractors.
The order included the preparation of detailed designs and the required approval designs for the entire tram line from the Tiszai Railway Station to Diósgyőr, which contains, in addition to the refurbishment of the tram line, the redesign of the architecture and building services of the car depot, engineering structure and utility construction and replacement tasks, public lighting, the reconstruction of the pedestrian street in the city centre from wall to wall, and the widening and asphalt paving of the roadway next to the platforms. The total length of the line to be refurbished was 9.5 km, which was extended by an additional 1.5 km. A branch for the Iron Factory loop was also completed, the stops of which had to be refurbished, too. The project was entitled ‘Green Arrow’, referring to a grassed tramway, but finally this was implemented (in the form of artificial grass) only in the section crossing the Diósgyőr housing estate. The design had to be carried out simultaneously with construction, requiring high flexibility, up-to-datedness and workload tolerance from the Designers.

DESIGN TASKS:

• preparation of studies for area parts;
• modification of approval designs and obtaining of permits;
• preparation of detailed designs.

PROJECT ELEMENTS:

• construction of the existing tramway and catenary in a length of 9.5 km;
• construction of a new tramway in a length of 1.5 km with a new catenary system;
• upgrading of stops with custom-made platform canopies, passenger information devices, accessibility for the disabled, custom-made paving and a tactile strip for the visually impaired;
• construction of a new terminal in Felső-Majláth;
• upgrading of power supply and design of current converters;
• coordinated upgrading of the signalling system and road signal devices;
• reconstruction and technological upgrading of the car depot;
• construction of a temporary car depot;
• paving of the city centre from wall to wall with pavers and planting of trees;
• adjustment and asphalt paving of the roadway in the vicinity of stops and reconstruction of pedestrian crossings for platforms accessible for the disabled;
• overhaul of the traffic order of the main square in Újgyőr by establishing a new roundabout junction;
• modification of road traffic in the quarter of Diósgyőr to adjust it to the location of the extended tramway and design of a new tramway section;
• design of road construction, traffic engineering systems and utilities for the Felső-Majláth terminal, including the provision of utility services to the terminal building;
• design of the replacement of all utilities and public lighting required due to tramway and road construction.

PROJECT RESULTS:
Construction has been completed, the vehicle tender has been closed, and the first trainsets of new low-floor, 2.65 m wide, 32.5 m long Ganz-SKODA vehicles, which can run in two directions, already use the refurbished and extended line. During construction, lots of rationalisation and new ideas were needed to avoid that the project exceeds the pre-set budget and to meet the special requirements of the individual areas. A RAFS permanent way was made in the inner sections by retaining the existing longitudinal beam, which resulted in an additional energy input in design, but cost savings in construction. In order to increase noise and vibration control, a flexible rubber blanket was also built in under the reinforced concrete slab here. As a result of the repaving of the city centre with natural stone from wall to wall and the planting of trees, the residents of Miskolc received a pedestrian street upgraded also in terms of its image, which goes beyond the tram project. While a RAFS permanent way with press concrete and cobblestone paving was constructed in the city centre, conforming to the image of the pedestrian street, in the section leaving the main square in Újgyőr, the open line previously paved with crushed stone was designed with a RAFS permanent way separated with raised kerbs. In the new section, artificial grass was laid, aesthetically integrating the new tramway into the green area part. The Felső-Majláth terminal provides not only for the reversal of trams, but also for the parking and reversal of buses, and passengers are also able to transfer, in addition to buses going to the Bükk Mountains, to the forest narrow-gauge railway of the Lillafüred State Forest Railway. At the upgraded car depot, new vehicles can be maintained and parked with the application of new technologies. On the whole, with the modern extended tramway, the residents of the city can not only enjoy faster commutes from the Tiszai Railway Station to the outermost point of the Diósgyőr housing estate and the comfort of the new trainsets, but could also take possession of a new gem of urban architecture with custom-designed stops and a renewed pedestrian street.