A2 autostrada (Poland)

S3 near Świebodzin (under construction)
S5,  S11 west of Poznań (under construction)
S11 near Poznań
S5 east of Poznań (under construction)
A1 near Łódź (planned)
S2,  S8 near Warsaw (planned)

The autostrada A2 in Poland is a motorway which, when completed, will run from west to east through central Poland, from the Polish-German border in Świecko/Frankfurt (Oder) (connecting to the German A12 autobahn), through Poznań, Łódź and Warsaw to the Polish-Belarusian border in Terespol/Brest (connecting to M1 highway). The motorway is a part of the European route E30.

History of construction

The first highway planned along part of this route was a Reichsautobahn initiated by Nazi Germany to connect Berlin with Poznań (Posen). The construction of this highway, accelerated after Poznań was incorporated into Germany following the Invasion of Poland in 1939, was interrupted by the war and never finished, but traces of its earthworks are clearly visible on satellite photographs, especially between the border with Germany and Nowy Tomyśl. Many of these traces will soon disappear as the modern motorway is going to follow the same route for the most part. A short stretch of the uncompleted highway between the border and Rzepin was finished as a dual carriageway road after 1945, in effect forming an extension of the German A 12 highway (opened as a Reichsautobahn in the 1930s). Except for this stretch, the construction work was not continued in the decades after the war.

New plans to build the A2 motorway were seriously formulated in communist Poland in the 1970s, possibly with the goal of completing it in time for the Moscow Olympics in 1980. Because of the economic crisis which hit the country in the late 1970s and continued throughout the 1980s, only a 50 km (31 mi) section from Września to Konin was opened in the 1980s. Construction of another stretch was started and then abandoned, leaving an interesting ruin informally named Olimpijka.

Intensive construction of the motorway started only in 2001 after the fall of communism in Poland in 1989. Out of the planned total length of 610 km (380 mi), 252 km (157 mi) have been completed. A section of about 150 km (93 mi) (Nowy Tomyśl - Poznań - Września - Konin) has been fully open since 2004. This section is a toll road, with the exception of a short stretch through Poznań which serves as that city's bypass (between the interchanges at Głuchowo and Kleszczewo). An additional 100 km (62 mi) section from Konin to Stryków near Łódź was opened on July 26, 2006. A short 4.8 km (3.0 mi) bypass of Stryków, consisting of a 2 km extension of the A2 and a provisional single carriageway section of future motorway A1, was opened in December 2008, to ease the heavy traffic in that town generated when the motorway reached it.

Current construction

As of winter 2009/2010, the plan was to finish the whole section between the border with Germany and Warsaw by the Spring of 2012, giving the Polish capital its first motorway connection to the European motorway network in time for the Euro 2012 football championships. That ambitious goal may not be attainable due to various difficulties encountered in finalizing the construction contracts and the delays that resulted. The 90 km section from Stryków to Warsaw was to be built in a public-private partnership, but the negotiations between the government and private companies interested in participating collapsed in February 2009 due to disputes over financing terms.^[1] Now this section of the motorway will be built using public funds alone. The new bidding process was started on March 27, and the contracts for design and construction of the road were signed on September 28.^[2] Construction work began in 2010. The contractors were required to have the motorway open to traffic in time for Euro 2012. This goal was an ambitious one and ultimately proved unrealistic, given the possibility of unexpected delays during construction.^[3] and the fact that the Chinese consortium abandoned the project less than a year later.^[4]

As of November 2011 construction of the stretch to the German border from Nowy Tomyśl is completed. The road was opened to public traffic on December 1. Toll plazas on this stretch of the highway will not be open until May 2012 so use of the western section of the A2 will be free of charge until then.^[5]

Future plans

The eastern section from Warsaw to the border crossing with Belarus at Kukuryki near Brest (connecting with M1), about 170 km in length, is still in planning stages. The decision finalizing the route of this section was announced in December, 2011^[6] but actual construction will not begin in the near future, and the schedule will depend on the availability of government funding. The exception is a short (21 km (13 mi) long) section of A2 forming the bypass of Mińsk Mazowiecki which has been under construction since August 2009 and should be open in late 2011. The construction of the section between Warsaw and Siedlce should start first because of higher traffic density. The construction of the remaining section to the border with Belarus may begin considerably later, since the traffic density along this route is low and there is no urgent need for a high capacity road.

It is worth noting that the A2 motorway doesn't actually run through Warsaw, as the inhabitants of the districts through which it was to pass have successfully blocked its construction. This outcome was somewhat unusual, since the corridor for the motorway has been reserved by the city planners since the 1970s and kept free of construction. Instead, the traffic will be rerouted through two express roads (S2 and S8), of lower standard than the originally planned motorway. Paradoxically, one of these roads (S2) will run along the originally planned motorway corridor, so the residents who protested the construction will still end up with a busy road running through their districts, possibly even more inconvenient than the original road would have been. In the most affected area, the district of Ursynów, the express road will run in a tunnel, which will be built at considerable expense.

Exit list

See also

• European route E30

References

External links

• Official page of the toll company
• Page about the planned road network through Warsaw (Polish)
• Poland: The Chinese Motorway - news video from European Journal