Report by Krystyna Kolosowka.

When Poland and Ukraine were awarded the right to host the Euro 2012 championships, many people, even those only vaguely interested in football, were enthusiastic – expecting that road building in Poland will at last take off. Last year, infrastructure minister Cezary Grabarczyk pledged that Poland’s motorway network will expand from 699 km to 1065 km – that is by almost 900 km, just in time for Euro 2012. The length of expressways was to increase at the same time from 317 to 2418 km. It is clear today that this plan is not likely to be fulfilled. The minister himself admitted that -

‘The program did envisage the construction of some 3200 km of motor and expressways, but the funds guaranteed by the government in September 2007 are insufficient to realize it. In this situation, some tasks will take longer to complete.’

The weekly Newsweek, for example, forecasts that out of 3000 km of express and motorways planned, only a half will be built. Jan Jakiel of the SISKOM road watchdog is not optimistic, either.

He attributes the delays in the construction of motor and express ways to problems with NATURA 2000 protected sites and to different concepts of road  building adopted by successive cabinets. The government of the Democratic Left Alliance wanted to build motorways on its own, while the present cabinet of the Civic Platform favored the idea of private-public partnership. This idea collapsed a few weeks ago, and the government decided to build motorways on its own, basing on public funds. But, apart from funds, stability of the legal framework is crucial for the program to succeed, says SISKOM’s Jan Jakiel.

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