Metro II gets the green light
Last week Warsaw's City Hall approved the route of the second Metro line, which will go from Bemowo to Bródno. By 2012, it should link Rondo Daszyńskiego with Dworzec Wileński on the east bank of the river.
With 20 stops, the line will start in Chrzanów in the west of Warsaw and proceed along ul. Górczewska and ul. Wolska towards Rondo Daszyńskiego, Rondo ONZ and Powile. Finally it will tunnel under the river near to więtokszyski Bridge, and will reach Stadium Dziesięciolecia, Targówek and Bródno. The total cost of the construction is estimated at zł.6 billion.
The first six-kilometer-long section of the line connecting Rondo Daszyńskiego and Dworzec Wileński is scheduled for completion by 2012. The plans seem very ambitious, but Mirosław Kochalski, City Hall's secretary, believes it will be achievable thanks to modern shield-drilling techniques. In the past, workers could make two meters of tunnel a day; now, it will be at least 10 or even 12 times faster. "With this method, 90-kilometer-long tube lines were built in only five years in Madrid," says Jerzy Lejk, president of the board at Metro Warszawskie.
City Hall intends to apply to the EU for additional funds this year. Once the documents are accepted, Metro Warszawskie will invite tenders for completion of the first part of the line, which is scheduled to take place in 2007. The authorities want to complete the second line within 10 years at the latest. Currently, the first line is still being built and works will last for two more years. Officials are already thinking of building a third line linking Dworzec Wileński with Gocław.
