Road construction costs soaring

"Since the beginning of the year our vendors increased prices by 12%. For the time being new offers were not presented justifying growing prices as a result of an announcement related to organizing Euro 2012," said Andrzej Maciejewski, spokesman of road constructing authority GDDKiA. "We have to bear in mind that soon such a situation may occur." The numbers are clear, as GDDKiA has to construct roughly 3,000 km of new highways and express roads by 2012. According to current Economy Ministry estimates, 900 km of planned highways costs EUR 6.6 billion. On Wednesday deputy PM Przemyslaw Gosiewski announced that the government could increase spending on roads by zl.15 billion. Suppliers deny any correlation between growing prices and Euro 2012, blaming the situation on shortages of materials, as well as wages demands. (Rzeczpospolita, pp. A1, B1) M.M.