New Roads and Railroads
Over 250 kilometres of high-speed routes are expected to be put into service in 2023. The railroads have also announced completion of works on several important modernized routes, although not all of them will achieve the expected travel times
DGP has learned about the plans of the road and railroad authorities with regard to investments that are to be completed in 2023. In the case of high-speed roads, one can expect a decent result, as about 70 km of highways and almost 200 km of expressways are to be put into service. This is admittedly considerably less than in the record-breaking year 2012, when more than 570 km of roads were made available to drivers, but at the same time better than in the paltry years 2015, 2016 and 2020, when the length of new high-speed thoroughfares being put into service ranged between 51 and 124 km.
One of the most important events next year will be the closing of the ring road around Łódź, which will be made possible by the opening of a 14-kilometre section of the S14 route between Aleksandrów Łódzki and the Słowik junction at the A2 highway. According to plans, drivers can expect to use it starting next spring. Thus, Łódź will be the first major city in Poland to have a complete ring road. Warsaw, for example, is still awaiting its own, as the construction of the eastern part of the ring road remains blocked after protests.
Next year, three sections of the S11 route from Koszalin to Bobolice (a total of 48 km) are also to be put into service. Among other things, this thoroughfare will facilitate travel to the coast from Poznań or Bydgoszcz. According to the General Directorate of National Roads and Highways (GDDKiA), in 2023 new sections of the Via Baltica will be opened near Ełk and Ostrów Mazowiecka (a total of over 40 km).
The length of highways will also increase next autumn. At long last, the reconstruction of the A18 route, a branch of the A4 from Wrocław leading towards Berlin, is to be completed. For years, it was dubbed "Europe's longest staircase," as one drove on uneven concrete slabs still reminiscent of the 1930s. Also in the autumn, the two outer sections of the A2 highway between Mińsk Mazowiecki and Siedlce are to be completed, while the middle section between them is scheduled to be completed in 2024.
Szymon Piechowiak, GDDKiA spokesperson, promises that next year will also see the opening of sections of the S1 (from Oświęcim to Bielsko-Biała), S7 in Małopolskie Voivodship or S16, which will allow reaching Mrągowo from the Olsztyn side.
For the moment, the road authorities are reluctant to talk about the details of next year's procurement plans. They are waiting for the Council of Ministers to adopt the national road construction program until 2030. It might get pared down due to indicated budget cuts.
The railroads, in turn, have announced the expected completion of work on several important modernized routes in 2023 ‒ these are investments carried out under the National Railroads Program, valued at PLN 77 billion. Some of them, unfortunately, are heavily delayed. These include the reconstruction of the Warsaw‒Poznań line, to the amount of over PLN 2 billion, which was to be completed in 2020. Mirosław Siemieniec from PKP Polskie Linie Kolejowe (Polish Railway Lines) announced that works on the last section of the route ‒ in the Kutno area ‒ will be completed in the second half of 2023. However, it is not certain whether it will be possible to achieve the intended travel time between Warsaw and Poznań: the fastest trains were supposed to get from one city to the other in 2 hours 20 minutes.
According to PKP PLK, next year should also mark the completion of essential works on the modernized route between Poznań and Szczecin. The travel time, which now stands at more than 3 hours, is expected to be cut to 1 hour 50 minutes. Here, too, however, there are doubts over whether it would be possible as early as 2023. Piotr Malepszak, a rail infrastructure expert and former vice president of the Solidarity Transport Hub, estimates that works on the route from Poznań to Szczecin will still be underway in 2024. Travel times shorter than in the 1990s will probably not be possible here until 2025, he says. According to him, the Warsaw‒Poznań route also runs the risk of further delays.
Railroad plans for next year also include the completion of repairs to the final sections on the route to the Tatra Mountains, from Sucha Beskidzka to Chabówka and further to Zakopane. In addition, a service track will be built in Chabówka, so that trains will not have to change driving directions. According to railroad officials, thanks to these works, the trip between Kraków and the winter capital of Poland will take just a tad more than two hours.
Completion of the reconstruction of Kraków's cross-city railroad line, scheduled for the second half of 2023, will also be a revolution. The investment involves, among other things, adding a second pair of tracks to improve capacity. The railroad authorities also want to finish rebuilding the last section of the Warsaw‒Białystok route in 2023. According to plans, a trip from the capital to Podlasie is expected to take about an hour and a half. Such a travel time, however, will probably only be achieved in 2024.
In the north of Masovia, on the other hand, a major reconstruction of the line between Ostrołęka and Chorzele near the border with the Warmian-Masurian Voivodship is to be completed. By the end of next year, passenger trains are expected to return to this route after an absence of over 22 years. Once a further section is renovated, an alternative rail route from Warsaw to Masuria, to places such as, for example, Szczytno, could be established.
When asked about its procurement plans for 2023, PKP PLK says it will be ready to announce tenders to the value of PLN 15 to 20 billion. This includes, for example, the reconstruction of a section of the Warsaw‒Kraków line from near Kielce to Kozłów in Małopolska. In the case of railroads, the size of possible orders largely depends on the availability of EU funds, and these are still uncertain. A number of procurement opportunities have already been curtailed by the lack of funds from the National Recovery Plan, which PKP PLK was very much counting on. In 2021, it planned to announce tenders to the value of PLN 17 billion, but eventually ended up tendering projects worth only about PLN 4 billion. ©℗
Dziennik Gazeta Prawna, special edition, Horizons 2023
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