Skip to main content

EIB aids funding for Poland's A2

The European Investment Bank (EIB) will help funding of the A2 highway project in Poland, which has faced financing problems due to the economic crisis. The EIB is making an exception to its usual policy by granting to Polish company Autostrada Wielkopolska credit that covers over 50% of the costs of the construction work for a highway section. The EIB will provide €1 billion for the A2 investment and to create an option of an additional €200 million. The total value of the investment, which is expected to
July 12, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
The 1054 European Investment Bank (EIB) will help funding of the A2 highway project in Poland, which has faced financing problems due to the economic crisis.

The EIB is making an exception to its usual policy by granting to Polish company 3533 Autostrada Wielkopolska credit that covers over 50% of the costs of the construction work for a highway section. The EIB will provide €1 billion for the A2 investment and to create an option of an additional €200 million. The total value of the investment, which is expected to be completed in early 2012, is estimated to exceed €1.3 billion. Construction works are to be carried out by 945 Strabag.

Funding has also been secured for construction work on two sections of the ring road around the Polish capital Warsaw, with the EIB supplying a €565 million loan that will cover nearly 50% of the €1.13 billion investment costs required. The rest of the financing will be provided from the National Road Fund (KFD) and from 3287 EU structural funds.

This deal is of note as Poland's highway projects have struggled to find funding in recent months following the banking crisis. The new ring road will reduce current congestion problems in Warsaw and improve transport links between Warsaw and other parts of the country.

The country's General Directorate for National Roads and Motorways (1361 GDDKiA) plans to invest €449 million on repairs and upgrades to dual carriageways during 2009, twice as much as was budgeted last year, but still not sufficient to significantly improve road conditions in Poland. It is estimated that to repair all roads, GDDKiA would have to spend over four times as much.

The authorities in the southern Polish city of Krakow are proposing a private public partnership (PPP) to pay for the third ring road around the city, which has an estimated cost of €892.5 million, while there are estimates that by 2013, Poland's six biggest cities will invest €3.96 billion in upgrading roads and communications networks, in order to cope with increasing traffic congestion. The largest amount allocated is in Warsaw, with a substantial portion being put towards the construction of the Northern Bridge, which is already underway.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Success of toll road operators' conference
    July 12, 2012
    The 37th ASECAP Annual Study and Information Days held in Krakow, Poland, gathered some 300 road transport CEOs, experts and government decision-makers making the event "a huge success." Patrick Smith reports Toll road operators from across Europe have met to discuss the state of their businesses in the current economic climate and how to tackle it. Fabrizio Palenzona, the outgoing President of ASECAP (the European professional Association of Operators of Toll Road Infrastructures) and president of AISCAT (
  • Poles plan repairs
    May 30, 2012
    The Polish highway authorities plan to spend some €1.47 billion on repairing roads over the next three years. Around 500km of roads will be repaired in 201 under the plan. The project will be aided by funds from the National Road Fund (KFD) and from credits granted by the EIB in 2009. A number of road repairing tenders are already in process with more due later in the year.
  • We're here to help
    July 16, 2012
    Formed at the end of the Cold War, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has raised, and loaned, billions to revitalise infrastructure from central Europe to central Asia as Patrick Smith reports One of the highlights of the year for Thomas Maier has been the recent trip to Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, where history was made. As the Business Group director in charge of the infrastructure sector at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) he was present when contract
  • Kenya rehabilitates, widens, tolls Northern Corridor
    November 8, 2017
    A massive highway project in Kenya will boost transport for the country as well as its neighbours - Shem Oirere reports. Kenya has commenced the process of rehabilitating, expanding and tolling of 657km of East Africa’s Northern Corridor that is anchored on the Indian Ocean port of Mombasa and which links the gateway with landlocked countries of Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and parts of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).