Skip to main content

New Polish government of Jaroslaw Kaczynski rethinks road spend

Poland might double road spend after the new government criticised spending calculations up to 2025 put together by the previous administration. The Vice-Minister of Infrastructure said expenditure would need to nearly double to around €47 billion for the planned new dual carriageways and motorways. A report by daily economic and political newspaper Rzeczpospolita said the government is calling the estimate of €3.7 million to build a 1km of road “unrealistic”. The rethink comes after Poland's euros
December 7, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
Poland might double road spend after the new government criticised spending calculations up to 2025 put together by the previous administration.

The Vice-Minister of Infrastructure said expenditure would need to nearly double to around €47 billion for the planned new dual carriageways and motorways.

A report by daily economic and political newspaper Rzeczpospolita said the government is calling the estimate of €3.7 million to build a 1km of road “unrealistic”.

The rethink comes after Poland's eurosceptic and conservative opposition Law and Justice Party won parliamentary elections in October, signalling a shift towards left-leaning economic policies. PiS, as Law and Justice and Law is known by its Polish acronym, is in favour of more public spending.

Law and Justice, led by Jaroslaw Kaczynski, defeated prime minister Ewa Kopacz of the centrist Civic Platform.

News agencies reported that the return to power of Justice and Law after eight years in opposition will probably mean an increase in state control of the economy with more taxes on banks and a slow-down in privatisation. Also, adopting the euro is not likely on the party’s agenda.

Rating agency Standard and Poor's said Poland's A- rating with a positive outlook remains unchanged for the moment. S&P head analyst on Poland, Felix Winnekens, said the rating could dip to “stable” if there were “reversals regarding fiscal consolidation, macroeconomic management or monetary policy”.

It was in August that then prime minister Kopacz announced that around €25 billion were to be earmarked for roads up to 2023, with almost 60 ring roads and 4,000km  new road expected to be built.

Meanwhile, the city of Ruda Slaska will allocate €70 million in loans from the European Investment Bank towards paying for the €162 million needed for infrastructure work, including roads, between 2016-2019.

Related Content

  • Brazilian road spend dips slightly for 2015
    July 9, 2015
    Brazil will spend at least US$1.63 billion in privately operated federal road infrastructure projects in 2015. This is down slightly, from $1.82 billion spent in 2014, according to estimates by the land transport agency NTT. Work this year includes a stretch of the BR-050 motorway operated by MGO, which already has seen around $104 million. Road operator Concer, which administers sections of the BR-060, BR-153 and BR-262, invested nearly $88 million between 2014 and the first quarter of 2015. Arter
  • Demand diversity in the construction equipment sector
    June 1, 2015
    Demand within the global construction equipment manufacturing industry is anything but homogenous, with certain countries and sales regions significantly outperforming others, with a whole host of factors fuelling and suppressing each key market - Guy Woodford reports
  • US infrastructure spending
    January 2, 2024
    US$492 billion in infrastructure funding remains to be allocated, but it all ends in 2026 by Mary Scott Nabers
  • The Russian government is set to revise roadbuilding standards and technologies
    May 29, 2013
    The Russian government is considering revising standards and technologies of roadbuilding in the country, writes Eugene Gerden. The aim is to accelerate implementation of one of the major public projects in the transport industry of Russia in the coming years: expansion of the road network from the current 900,000km to 1.3 million km by 2030 as part of the current Russian State Transport Strategy. According to a recent study, conducted by analysts of the Presidential Head Control Directorate, maintaining th