Autostrada A18 (Poland)

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The A18 highway in Poland is a short motorway which runs from the Polish/German border at Olszyna/Bademeusel (connecting to the German A15 autobahn) to the junction with the Polish A4 motorway. When fully completed around 2010, it will be 78 km long. The stretch currently opened and signed as A18 is 17 km long ^[1], though a part of that will be resigned as A4 in the near future. The highway is a part of the European route E36.

The motorway had its beginning as a single-carriegeway Reichsautobahn built by Germany in the 1930s ^[2]. This route had all the features of a full autobahn built according to the standards of the time, except that only a single carriageway was actually constructed along most of its length, and space was left for constructing the second carriegeway at a later time. The road existed in this state until the early 1990s when the first 7 km at its eastern end were rebuilt with new concrete carriageways. In 1995 the 7 km stretch on the western end was modernised with the addition of a second carriageway.

From 2004 onward, construction work is being progressively carried out to upgrade the whole stretch to modern standards, so that it can officially be designated as an Autostrada in its entirety. Between 2004 and 2006 the missing northern carriageway was completed on the whole length^[3] , and most of the overpasses and bridges were completely reconstructed. By June, 2007, the road had two carriageways in use. However, the older of the two is in very poor shape, as it still has a surface made of concrete slabs laid in the 1930s. In 2008-2010 all traffic will be shifted to the northern carriageway, and then the southern carriageway will be demolished and built anew.

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