Ramping up road renovation

Some 730km of roads will be renovated within Mazovia's borders between 2006 and 2008. Voivodship officials recently unveiled its road-renovation program, which predicts spending of zł.900 million, half of which will go on roads in Warsaw's outskirts. This ambitious agenda means that during the next three years approximately 25 percent of all the voivodship's roads will be renovated, leaving around 1,000km still in need of attention.

Outside the agglomeration of Warsaw, 347km of roads will be renovated, and officials have focused on improving the six intercity roads leading to and from the capital city. The cost of the renovation or rebuilding of these routes will come to zł.460 million. Other major renovations are scheduled for the regions of Ciechanów, Ostrołęka, Płock, Sieldce and Radom.

"The agenda is going to be financed from several sources: the voivodship's budget; EU structural funds; and the PHARE program," said Adam Struzik, Mazovia's marshal.

The budget will cover zł.279 million, PHARE is going to add zł.2.5 million and the rest - zł.610 million - will come from the EU. In 2004 voivodship officials organized the renovation of 23 road sections at a cost of zł.30.5 million. Last year's figures surpassed 2004's efforts by zł.23.5 million.