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Tuesday, 3 February 2009

Poloneza drivetime, winter



A short fragment of my usual drive to work; along ul. Poloneza between ul. Jeziorki and the Metro rail spur. This short film ends where the new S2 Berlin-Moscow motorway/southern Warsaw ringroad will be built, parallel to the railway (see post below).

As you can see, road conditions are atrocious. It starts kind of OK, passing ul. Ludwinowska (where the second zone of Warsaw's taxis ends and the first begins). Then things get bad. This is where cars got bogged down in thick mud last week. Around the 1min 25 mark, it's so bad that traffic is forced to drive into the neighbouring field to get around the morass that spans the road.
Today, after overnight frosts of -4C, the mud solidified, leaving ridges and ruts. Keep your wheels on the ridges and you're OK.
UPDATE: The district of Ursynów has announced that ul. Poloneza will be modernised by... 2013. It will cost 18 million zlotys (if that sounds a lot for 2.8km, bear in mind that most of that will be spent on a viaduct over the new Warsaw Southern Bypass, the S2).
This time last year:
Aerial juxtapositions
London icon
Moans about Okęcie airport*
* Before the opening of Terminal 2, the viaduct to Ursynów and the demise of CentralWings
at

5 comments:

  1. Anonymous5 February 2009 at 09:20

    Michael,
    I don't understand all your grumbling on those roads.
    I used to turn left from Karczunkowska to Nawłocka -> Trombity -> Kórnicka -> Jeziorki -> Poloneza -> Krasnowolska -> Puławska. To get to Ursynów schools with my kids at 8.00 I had to leave home at 7.35. But soon dozens of drivers coming from behind the rails (Zgorzała? Magdalenka? Grójec? Radom?) have discovered this route and it became crowded. Cars were riding slowly one by one, you have it all on your photos in past entries. Leaving at 7.25 was not enough and my car was rattling like hell on these roads. So i just decided to quit and follow the tarmac: Karczunkowska -> Puławska, we leave home at 7.15 and arrive in Ursynów 7.50 - 7.55.
    Just like that. Sleeping 15 minutes longer is not worth all that grief in mud on Poloneza.

    All the best,

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  2. Anonymous5 February 2009 at 11:26

    Your short film is an off-beat work of art. A rus in Urbe cine delight. Please post more of such visual observations. It is head and shoulders above the plethora of such material normally posted upon the web. This has purpose, continuity and that sense of process and vanishing point. I love the noise of the tyres upon the impacted rutted icy road.


    Frater Super8steadycam

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  3. Anonymous5 February 2009 at 11:56

    I second anononymous whole heartedly. Your blog is a ray of sunshine.

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  4. Unknown5 February 2009 at 17:51

    Our road was like that until they installed the sewerage pipes last summer now we have a 'semi' tarmacked surface - heaven!

    What was that pinging sound? Your crucifix hanging from the mirror or the change in your pocket?

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  5. Michael Dembinski5 February 2009 at 18:28

    W. - Pinging sound is keys banging against large metallic fob.

    Neighbour - Depending on whether I have to be at Platan Park (top end of Poloneza) I leave at either 7:45 or 8:15. For me Puławska is an unnecessary detour. The A to B journey is Trombity->Kórnicka->Jeziorki->Poloneza (from one end to the other). Poloneza is OK in summer (though dusty), and OK in winter when frozen. Hell in November and Feb/March.

    Adthelad, Frater SuperEighter, thanks! Good to get such support on posting my first film clip!

    ReplyDelete