Warsaw. 50 years of Łazienkowska Route

Seven years ago, in a programme on Radio dla Ciebie, engineer Lech Gruszczyński, who was a member of the team designing the Łazienkowska Route, recalled that at the turn of the 1960s and 1970s, the construction of another crossing connecting the two banks of the Vistula had become a necessity.

– If we look at a map of Warsaw from that time, Aleje Jerozolimskie divided the city more or less into two halves in terms of building area and number of inhabitants – he said. Residents of the northern part of the city had at their disposal the Śląsko-Dąbrowski and Gdański bridges. For those from the south, the first crossing was the Poniatowski bridge.

– Over time, as the number of cars in the city grew, access streets such as Aleje Ujazdowskie and Krucza became increasingly congested – recalled Lech Gruszczyński.

The aim of the construction was to take over traffic from the southern districts, primarily Mokotów, where new housing estates were being built, as well as to take over transit between eastern and western Warsaw, bypassing Śródmieście.

The first preparations for the construction of the route began in the first half of the 1960s. As Gruszczyński recalled, in 1964 the authorities recommended saving money, which is why the tram line and some of the two-level interchanges were abandoned. The first geological drilling and demolitions began.

However, the work was very slow. The first secretary of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party at that time was Władysław Gomułka, known for saving and aversion to large and expensive investments. Towards the end of his rule, the construction of the route stopped, and its continuation basically hung by a thread.

– An important date was April 1969, when comrade Gomułka stated that Poland and Warsaw could not afford to build the Łazienkowska Route. All field analyses and design work should be suspended – reported engineer Gruszczyński.

“In June 1970 – the technical design was completed. Until September, the systematic takeover of the last completed elements of the projects took place and… they were put on the shelves in the archive. The name Łazienkowska Route disappeared from the newspaper columns a long time ago. The beautiful eight-meter model of Łazienkowska Route was closed – under lock and key – in the Palace Under the Blaster (in the years 1951-1988 it was the seat of the chief architect of the capital city of Warsaw – ed.) (…). In the offices designing the route, on the drawing boards, other projects had already appeared. People were leaving. Only a few remained” – wrote the main designer of the route Józef Sigalin in his book “Warsaw 1944-1980. From the architect's archive”.

Then came the December workers' strikes on the Coast, their bloody pacification and the dismissal of Władysław Gomułka. He was replaced by Edward Gierek, who proposed a new beginning. Better times came for all investments. The Łazienkowska Route project was also taken out of the drawer.

The decision to build it was made by the Presidium of the Government on 4 June 1971. The document specified that the investment would be completed by 1975. According to it, the route was to run from the two-level intersection with Waryńskiego Street to the intersection with Saska Street on the other side of the Vistula. In June 1972, a resolution of the Presidium of the National Council extended the scope of work to include two more junctions, which were included in the original route project, but were removed due to cost savings. This was to connect TŁ with Niepodległości Avenue and Ostrobramska Street.

The construction of the route was a unique event, not only because of the scale of the investment, but also because of the rather difficult terrain. The challenge for the designers was the difference in levels between the city centre, located on the Warsaw Escarpment, and Powiśle, located at its foot. The key element was, of course, the new bridge over the Vistula.

Józef Sigalin recalled: “The scale of the task was indeed large. The length of engineering structures (bridge, viaducts, tunnels, retaining walls) along the main carriageway of the route was 3,651 m, and outside the main carriageway – 2,658 m. These more than 6 kilometers of engineering structures required the construction of 103,000 m² reinforced concrete (7,700 tons of reinforcing iron and cables) and 5,600 tons of steel structure of the bridge over the Vistula River. Excavation, transport and creation of embankments covered 1,260,000 m³ earth. Road workers laid 390,000 m² roadway and 190,000 m² sidewalks, which were illuminated by electricians, who installed 5,230 light points (including 28-meter-high masts). Gardeners arranged 400,000 m² green areas and planted and transplanted 4,100 trees and 30,000 shrubs. This large amount of work was carried out by crews from 51 companies.”

The gigantic investment was growing almost in the very center of the city, right next to inhabited buildings with traffic on the cross streets. For many months it was a nuisance to the residents. Sigalin recalled that the makeshift wooden footbridge on Marszałkowska Street, which allowed crossing over the route under construction, was called by the residents of Warsaw “a bridge of sighs – sighs to the quick completion of construction”.

The official date of the opening of Trasa Łazienkowska was July 19, 1974. Three days later, exactly 25 years after the opening of the WZ route, the investment was handed over to public use. Sigalin recalled the opening ceremony as official, stiff, and party-government. “I was not among those who obligingly and politely crowded around Gierek, Jaroszewicz, and other dignitaries,” wrote the architect.

That same day, before noon, another equally solemn ceremony took place nearby. At 11:15, for the first time since World War II, the clock on the Sigismund Tower of the Royal Castle was started. The reconstruction of the seat of Polish kings itself was completed five years later.

The Łazienkowska Route almost immediately became an element of pop culture. Songs were sung about it. In the film Miś by Stanisław Bareja, the entertainer Cwynkar played by Paweł Wawrzecki intones from the stage: “Hey young Junak, fight sadness and fear! After all, in thirty years, on this sand, the clear, long, straight, wide as the sea Łazienkowska Route will surely run! And it will connect the other shore, on which your father lay, with the shore.”

The route has featured in many films. Its construction is one of the main themes of the first episodes of the series “Czterdziestolatek” about the adventures of engineer Stefan Karwowski.

In 2015, the Łazienkowski Bridge was closed. On the evening of February 14, the bridge burst into flames.the temperature reached a thousand degrees Celsius, and the extinguishing lasted about 12 hours. 150 firefighters participated in the operation.

After expert opinions, the Warsaw authorities decided to dismantle and rebuild the entire steel part of the crossing. Only concrete supports remained from the previous one. Closing the bridge to traffic caused serious traffic disruptions in the capital.

The crossing was rebuilt quickly. By the end of October, it was ready, and the then mayor of the capital, Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz, assured that the new bridge would last another 100 years. The fire was investigated by the prosecutor's office, but the investigation was eventually discontinued. No one was found guilty.

Since the beginning of the 21st century, individual sections of the Łazienkowska Route have been undergoing major renovation works. In the years 2002-2006, the connecting roads with Wał Miedzeszyński were demolished and rebuilt. In 2013 and 2014, the “snails” to Wisłostrada were modernized. In 2022-2023, the viaducts over Agrykola Park were demolished and rebuilt. Similar works are currently being carried out on the viaducts over Paryska Street in Saska Kępa. According to the announced schedule, the works are to be completed in the middle of next year.