Dual road link up

Budimex-Dromex recently signed a zł.96 million contract to implement the second stage of the Upper Silesian northern ring-road between ul. Strzelców Bytomskich and ul. Celna in Bytom. The other investor is Drogowa Trasa Średnicowa SA (DTŚ), who agreed with Skanska SA on the completion of a zł.190 million contract to construct a 3.2 km long road with a two-level junction between ul. Niedurnego and ul. Klary in Ruda Śląska.

The new 2km-plus-long section of the Upper Silesian ring-road will ease the transport problems in the agglomeration and will finally link the existing route, which was completed in 2000, and the planned A1 highway. Apart from the surface, the company will build three fly-overs, a 100-meter long tunnel, and will rebuild the railway and technical infrastructure.

Some 75 percent of the investment will be covered by the EU within the Regional Development Integrated Operational Program (ZPORR). The remainder will be financed by the City Hall. The investment is scheduled for completion in June 2008, when the third stage linking the route with the national road number four will be launched.

The DTŚ was beset by a number of protests in the past year. "The route is of strategic importance for us but we couldn't do much," says Adam Nowak, a spokesperson for Ruda Śląska's City Hall. The investment is scheduled for completion in May 2008.

Eventually, the DTŚ route, which was originally planned for opening between 1986 and 2000, will be 31.3km long and will link Katowice and Gliwice, and according to Jerzy Polaczek, Minister for Transport and Construction, it will be completed by 2010.