Kraków and Warsaw were connected on Monday by the S7 expressway

– Today we are opening up to drivers the most important road investment this year in Poland. We have already opened several important expressways and new sections of the A2 motorway, but none of them was as important for communication, transport and functioning in the agglomeration as the bypass (S52 – ed.) and the missing section of the S7 road – said the head of the Ministry of Infrastructure Dariusz Klimczak.

He added that another section of the S52 bypass will be completed next year. – So that in mid-2026 the “ring” around Krakow can be closed and Kraków will be the second city in Poland after Łódź with a full “ring” – he pointed out.

The head of the Ministry of Infrastructure also assured that more roads and highways will be built. – For me, it is a great ambition to build an agglomeration bypass of the Warsaw metropolis – he said.

Deputy Prime Minister and head of the Ministry of National Defense participating in the event Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz he emphasized that the part of the route opened on Monday was long-awaited and would allow for a direct connection with the “ESKA” to Warsaw.

Paweł Woźniak, general director GDDKiA reminded that the completion of 13.3 km of the S7 route between the Widoma junction and the Mistrzejowice junction in Nowa Huta allows for the connection of the two largest cities in Poland – Warsaw and Kraków – by expressway. At the Mistrzejowice junction, the S7 road connects with the Kraków Northern Bypass along the S52 road.

The section between Widoma and Kraków was the last section of S7 to be built north of Kraków in Lesser Poland. After its completion, the two cities were connected by 270 km of a modern expressway. According to GDDKiA estimates, the S7 journey between the southern bypass of Warsaw and the northern bypass of Krakow will now take about 2.5 hours, almost twice as short as when the old DK7 running through Radom and Kielce was in operation.

The head of GDDKiA noted that the construction of this road is not yet fully finished, because some elements remain to be done along the route, including: works on junctions and fences. Therefore, the speed limit there is 80 km/h.

Connection between S7 and S52 will be provided by a temporary slip road, which will serve traffic in both directions until the works within the Mistrzejowice junction are completed. The Łuczyce junction will be closed until mid-2025, and work is still ongoing. Until the Masterejowice junction is completed, the Raciborowice junction will operate to a limited extent – it will not be possible to enter it towards Krakow or exit it from the city side. The Mistrzejowice junction is to be fully completed in mid-2026 – it will be the largest road junction in Małopolska, after its construction the ring around Krakow will be closed.

The S7 route is a dual carriageway expressway with two lanes in each direction and a reserve for a possible third lane. The investment worth almost PLN 1.7 billion received PLN 534.8 million of EU funding under the Infrastructure and Environment Operational Program and PLN 420.7 million under the European Funds for Infrastructure, Climate and Environment Operational Program. Its contractor was the consortium of Gűlermak (leader), Gűlermak Agir Sanayi Inşaat ve Taahhűt and Mosty Łódź.

In turn, the completion of 12.3 km of the Krakow Northern Bypass (POK) along the S52 expressway means that the capital of Małopolska will soon be the second city in Poland, after Łódź, surrounded by a full ring of expressways. So far, the Krakow bypass was 52.2 km long, after opening 12.3 km of POK it will be 64.5 km. There are still 5 km of S7 between the Mistrzejowice junction and the Nowa Huta junction, which GDDKiA plans to complete in mid-2026, before it is fully closed.

The POK, opened on Monday, runs through the city along the northern borders of Krakow, as well as through the communes of Wielka Wieś and Zielonki. It has three lanes in each direction, but the speed limit is 100 km/h. The road manager introduced them for safety reasons, because due to terrain restrictions, the route does not have parameters allowing for travel at higher speeds.

In tunnels, due to their nature (curves in the tunnel in Zielonki, proximity of the Batowice junction in the case of the facility in Dziekanowice), a speed limit of 80 km/h has been introduced. According to GDDKiA, S52 is the only bypass in Poland with two tunnels – Zielonki (653 m) and Dziekanowice (496 m).

The bypass is connected to other roads through three new junctions: Zielonki (with Trasa Wolbromska), Węgrzce (with Al. 29 Listopada) and Batowice (with Os. Piastów and Batowice). 20 km of new access roads were also built, which will allow for convenient access from Krakow and surrounding towns. There were 27 bridges, viaducts and flyovers along the route with a total length of almost 1.9 km.

The cost of the work is approximately PLN 1.4 billion, of which PLN 789.6 million was EU funding from the Infrastructure and Environment Operational Program. The section was built by the consortium of Gűlermak (leader), Gűlermak Agir Sanayi Inşaat ve Taahhűt and Mosty Łódź.