The expressway between Warsaw and Krakow is finally ready. Before Christmas, drivers are to drive the last section of the S7. A section that was supposed to be ready for Euro 2012. More than 12 years have passed since the championship, but the road expansion plans are still not fully implemented. Łukasz Wieczorek showed the old map with the routes to the football championship to the Minister of Infrastructure. Here's what he found out.
We show the Minister of Infrastructure the road map from 2008 and ask whether all the roads for Euro are ready. Drivers were supposed to use these roads, marked in red, 12 years ago.
We have been waiting for roads for 12 years
– The roads on the map with which we have the biggest problem are also a matter of route. Especially here in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship and the Podkarpackie Voivodeship – replied Minister of Infrastructure Dariusz Klimczak. – In fact, there are still isolated sections, bottlenecks, as we call them, which have not been completed over the years – said Szymon Piechowiak from the General Directorate for National Roads and Motorways.
The S7 route between Gdańsk and Warsaw was supposed to be ready for Euro 2012. In the vicinity of Łomianki and Modlin, there is still a long way to go before the construction of the expressway is completed, not to mention the last section to Warsaw. – The construction of over 2,500 thousand kilometers of highways and expressways has been announced. This is an annual average of over 600 kilometers. Meanwhile, for many, many years, this average is about 250 kilometers. Therefore, when this program was announced, there was no chance of its implementation – commented Jan Jakil, road expert at JKO Consulting.
Delays and complications
Fans were supposed to reach the stadiums via these routes. To this day, the sections marked in yellow are not ready. This mainly concerns highways and expressways in the south of the country.
Planned roads for Euro 2012TVN24
– We did everything to minimize delays – explained the former Minister of Infrastructure Andrzej Adamczyk.
Both the previous and current authorities explain the delays, among other things, with protests, e.g. on the S7 construction route.
– The environmental decision that was issued by us was appealed against by the association of residents and ecologists from Małopolska – said the minister. – These are environmental issues, these are issues of choosing contractors and signing contracts with them and then, unfortunately, and we had such a wave, withdrawal from contracts with unreliable contractors – says Szymon Piechowiak from GDDKiA
We are “slowly getting closer” to completing the plan
Today, 12 years after the euro, we hear…
– We are slowly getting closer to completing the complete expressway plan for Euro 2012 – said Piechowiak.
In December, drivers are to travel from Warsaw to Krakow along the entire S7. Road workers are to open the last section before the capital of Małopolska and beyond.
– We will allow traffic to the Krakow bypass and the missing section of the S7 road until 11 p.m. at the latest – said Dariusz Klimczak. The journey between the two largest cities in Poland will be shortened by several minutes. We'll have to wait longer for other episodes. – Unfortunately, the most difficult ones are still in the design or investment process. First of all, it is the S19 expressway south of Rzeszów, where there are a large number of flyovers, tunnels and areas under natural protection – said Jan Jakil.
The last straight
This is the final stretch. – It turns out that we can get ready for the next football championship in Poland, because the roads for Euro 2012 have finally been built – said Dariusz Klimczak. The most important thing is that thanks to KPO, there is no shortage of euros to build further routes not only for Euro.
Main photo source: Shutterstock