Poland’s General Directorate for National Roads and Motorways (GDDKiA) has awarded four key road contracts. The works are worth in excess of €789 million and are for the construction of four stretches of the important S19 route.
The S19 dual carriageway is part of the Via Carpatia route, which runs across Europe and connects Lithuania with Greece and is intended to open to traffic in 2025. Construction of the route will help improve international transport between North and South Europe and is expected to provide a much-needed economic boost to Eastern Poland. The project has faced some controversy however, with stretches of the route in Poland being criticised on environmental grounds for disturbing the natural habitat of some threatened species.
The sections of the S19 that have just been awarded measure 61.3km in all. Meanwhile, 75km of the S19 in Poland has already been built and work is currently underway on some 257km of the route. During 2021 some 11 contracts should be signed for additional works on the S19, amounting to the construction of some 170km of the dual carriageway.
