An important road contract in Poland has been awarded to the Mota-Engil Central Europe subsidiary of Portuguese firm, Mota-Engil. The firm is to design and build a stretch of the S19 dual carriageway. The work will take around 36 months to carry out and the stretch of road will run from Lubartow to Lublin. The firm won the tender with a bid of €184.07 million, although there was a lower cost bid for the project. A number of other sections for the S19 were also awarded recently by Poland’s General Directorate for National Roads and Motorways (GDDKiA). Some 75km of the S19 has already been built, while work is underway at present on 257km of the route.
The project to build the S19 dual carriageway is important for Poland as well as its neighbours. Part of the Via Carpatia route, the road runs through Poland and proivdes an overland link from Lithuania to Greece. Intended for completion in 2025, the route will help improve international transport between North and South Europe. It will also provide a much-needed economic boost for Lithuania and Eastern Poland. The project has faced some controversy on environmental grounds, due to the cutting down of some forest areas and disturbance to the natural habitat of some threatened species.
