R4 expressway (Slovakia)
R4 expressway is an expressway in the north–south direction in eastern Slovakia. Initially planned to be completed in 2023, the completed long expressway will connect the state border of Poland to the border with Hungary, passing Svidník, Prešov and Košice.
On the Polish side, the R4 will be connected to the S19 expressway; on the Hungarian side, to the M30 motorway. The section between Prešov and Košické Oľšany is shared with D1, and sections between Košické Oľšany and Haniska with R2. The road is part of the proposed Via Carpatia route.
Chronology
This corridor was initially included in the expressway network and thus also in the construction plans as early as 1963, by the resolution of the Government of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic No. 286/1963. At that time, it was included as a combination of the motorway No. 73 in the section from Vyšný Komárnik to Prešov, and the motorway No. 68 in the section from Košice to the border with Hungary.After 1999, as part of the overall reorganisation of the expressway network and their renumbering, the corridor started to be referred to as the R4 expressway. Construction of the first section of the road did not begin until 2007, more than forty years after the first planning of a capacity road in this corridor. The Svidník bypass at a length of, in a half profile was put into operation at the end of 2010.
In 2013, the long section between south of Košice and the border with Hungary at Milhosť was put into operation, with Skanska as the sole contractor, constructing the section since 2010. The section received EUR 45 million in subsidies from the European Union.
In July 2019, Vahostav-SK was tendered to begin construction on Stage I of the Prešov northern bypass. The long section was opened in October 2023.
The construction began on a section between Košické Oľšany and Haniska in March 2022, aimed to provide a shared section with the R2. The section was put into operation in September 2025.