Warsaw. Linear Park above POW, Żerański Park, Suwak Linear Park

In Ursynów, city gardeners will plant 500 trees over the tunnel of the Warsaw Southern Bypass. In Żerański Park, they decided to leave a large part of the wild greenery that had grown on the post-industrial area. The green area along the office buildings at Suwak Street is intended to provide respite for Mordor employees.

The Greenery Board of the Capital City of Warsaw is implementing three large park investments. But, as Magdalena Młochowska, director for green Warsaw at the city hall, noted, officials also try to take greenery into account in other investments.

– Greenery is creeping in everywhere. Every project we implement in the city, including strictly road ones, is partly green. This makes our city more resistant to climate change: heavy rains and heat waves – argued Młochowska during Tuesday's meeting with journalists. As she calculated, in recent years it was possible to concrete 200,000 square meters of surface, plant 664,000 trees and plant 47 kilometers of tram tracks.

A park with a teddy bear above the bypass tunnel

The entire linear park over the Southern Bypass of Warsaw is to be ready in the first half of 2026, but it will be completed in stages starting next year. The investment was divided into six sections, currently work is underway on the fragment from Stryjeńskich Street to the National Education Commission Avenue. These will be completed in spring 2025. In the summer, the section from KEN Avenue to Lanci (garden of the senses) will be ready, and in the fall, from Lanci to Rosoł (inspired by orchards). – The outer sections, i.e. from Pilecki to Stryjeńskie and from Rosoł to Nowoursynowska, will be completed in the first quarter of 2026 – said Olga Rosłoń-Skalińska, director of investment and development at the Green Area Management Board.

The budget of this investment is PLN 42 million, and the area of ​​the future park is 12.5 hectares. About a thousand trees, 100,000 shrubs, over 300 benches and other seats are planned in this area. A yellow teddy bear will appear in the recreation area, which may evoke associations with Winnie the Pooh. But this is not a trip to the Hundred Acre Forest, but a more local reference – to the coat of arms of Ursynów. Although the bear on it is black, it is intended for children to play with, hence the warm colors. The teddy bear was produced by a Danish company with the apt name Monstrum. There will be a floor fountain next to it (it has already been tested).

The park will also be an ecological corridor for animals – between the Cichociemni Park and the Kabacki Forest, and Skarpa Warszawska and the Vistula River.

– More than half of the area is located on the roof of the tunnel, so we are dealing with the largest green area on the roof – said Rosłoń-Skalińska. And Młochowska added that for this reason the investment was a great challenge (strata ownership still does not exist in Polish law). To start the work, it was necessary to reach an agreement with the General Directorate for National Roads and Motorways (investor) and Astaldi (contractor).

– The talks were very difficult, they were still ongoing with the previous government, we tried to do it quietly so as not to turn it into a political discussion. We are building the park in a tunnel, so it has its limitations – explained the director of Green Warsaw.

A new park is being built in Ursynów

Suwak linear park, the green oasis of Mordor

Between the wall of office buildings and the railway line to Radom, on the site of former railway sidings and allotment gardens, the Suwak linear park was created. It is intended to be a green oasis in the highly urbanized part of Służewiec, called Mordor.

– This is a post-industrial area. Unlike the park in Ursynów, here we had a natural resource, we are equipping it to strengthen biodiversity. There will be 40 new ornamental and fruit trees. We are also creating a large flower meadow as food for insects – described Olga Rosłoń-Skalińska. City gardeners left some of the trees that grew on the plots, which is why the main path meanders. There are 60 benches, 12 deckchairs and six hammocks, mainly for employees of nearby office buildings. Here they will be able to reset.

– The park is ready, but we have a problem with the electrical connection because the operator was unable to complete it on time. We have looked for an alternative, we are reaching an agreement with our neighbor, we will partly draw electricity from his connection so that the park can be lit for the holidays. Initially, only every third street lamp will be lit – said Rosłoń-Skalińska.

The slider linear park is almost ready

Żerański Park with piers and port relics

Żerański Park, which is being built in Białołęka, will be much larger. It is 13 hectares along the western bank of the canal, between Modlińska and Płochocińska. The completion date is the second quarter of 2025, but the construction of the catering pavilion with a toilet will last until November. The total cost will be PLN 56 million.

– We will plant half a thousand trees, one hundred thousand bushes, 26 thousand perennials. There will be 100 benches and seats, a rope park and 15 piers for people who would like to have contact with water – announced the director of ZZW. She noted that city gardeners approached this post-industrial area as they did the park on the Warsaw Uprising Mound, that is, leaving a significant part of the existing greenery, which “annexed the area of ​​the unfinished river port and the prefabrication factory.” Their relics are also to remain in place.

– Wherever we have existing nature, we try to support it in our projects. This is the most pro-ecological, but also cheaper, because we maintain the vegetation that is most appropriate for a given place and performs best – concluded Magdalena Młochowska.

A park on the bank of the Żerański Canal