Standing stones

Work on the Elka ('L' shaped road formed by the S79 running south from ul. Marynarska and the S2 running east to ul. Puławska) is progressing, despite the long winter and wet spring. The viaducts that will take the roadways over asphalt and track are beginning to take shape.

Above: view from southbound KM (Kansas & Missouri?) train at W-wa Służew. The supports will carry northbound traffic from the S79 onto ul. Marynarska. Below: supports in place to carry the viaduct that will take ul Poloneza over the S2 and the line to the Warsaw Metro (foreground). I cannot wait for this to be completed, as my morning journey to Platan Park is hideously disturbed by the interruption.

Will it all be ready in time for the Euro2012 football championships?

The photo above reminds me of another bit of road infrastructure (below) that was being built in central Poland against a tight deadline, to carry motorway traffic to an international sporting event - the 1980 Moscow Olympics. This was meant to be a viaduct carrying the Berlin to Moscow motorway so that sports-loving westerners could drive their Mercedes-Benzes and BMWs to Brezhnev's USSR and watch Socialist athletes demonstrate their prowess against the imperialists.

Click here for English and Polish description plus licencing rights and photographer's details.

Why this photo?

To demonstrate the difference, to those who should know better, between Brussels and Moscow. Of course, even if building work on the S79/S2 ceases tomorrow, and 30 years from now all that's left on the construction site are standing stones, there will still be a difference between the EU and the USSR. The forced deportation of hundreds of thousands of Poles to labour camps and the murder of tens of thousands of Polish officers.