Skip to main content

Poland finally completes the cross-country A4 Autostrada

Poland officially opened the 672km A4 Autostrada that runs through southern Poland from the border with Germany to that with the Ukraine. The motorway passes through major Polish cities including Wrocław, Katowice and Kraków.
September 6, 2016 Read time: 1 min

Poland officially opened the 672km A4 Autostrada that runs through southern Poland from the border with Germany to that with the Ukraine.

The motorway passes through major Polish cities including Wrocław, Katowice and Kraków.

Work started in the mid-1980s on various sections and continued piecemeal over the years. In the 1990s, after political change to a more open market economy, plans proceeded to finish the route by 2013.

The completion date was moved forward after Poland became joint host, along with Ukraine, of the 2012 UEFA European Football Championship. There was an urgency to complete road infrastructure projects, according to a report by Radio Poland.

 But a June 2012 date to open the route proved too ambitious and then further delays, including some caused by major floods in 2010, pushed back the completion date.

There is still some work to do on two motorway services that likely will be ready by the end of October.

Related Content

  • Focusing on workzone safety systems
    March 16, 2012
    The US has seen a major reduction in deaths following accidents in its highway construction work zones, while Europe and other parts of the world are looking at new safety technology and systems to trigger a similar trend. Guy Woodford reports. Work in the US to reduce the likelihood of potentially fatal accidents at highway work zones is paying dividend.
  • Highly relevant: Denmark’s asset management for bridges
    July 12, 2019
    A well-maintained road bridge network is vital to Denmark’s economy. David Arminas caught up with Niels Pedersen, head of bridges at the Danish Road Directorate Denmark, being a country mainly of islands, relies on its bridges and tunnels to help unify the nation culturally. It also means that they are vastly more important to the economic well-being of the nation than in most other states. The World Bank has classified Denmark as a high-income economy. In 2017 it ranked 16th globally in terms of gros
  • Sao Paulo’s Mario Covas ring road faces last section glitch
    April 10, 2015
    A consortium of Brazil's Mendes Junior and Spain's Isolux Corsán could lose its US$208 million contract to build part of the northern section of the Mario Covas beltway around the Brazilian city of São Paulo. The consortium, led by Mendes Junior, is falling behind schedule because of cash flow problems, according to São Paulo state highway company Dersa. The deal was signed in January 2013, local paper Folha de São Paulo reported.
  • Transport the key to economic growth
    July 12, 2012
    Delegates from around the world discussed the future of global transport at the 2009 International Transport Forum in Leipzig, Germany In the face of the global economic downturn, transport will play a key role in supporting economic growth and in the creation of new confidence in the world's economic future, the delegates of the 2009 International Transport Forum (ITF) agreed. As almost all global threats have strong, central links and impacts, the transport sector will remain at the forefront of most glob