Work in progress

This year has been one of maximum traffic disruption in Warsaw. The building of the second Metro line (which will not be ready in time for the football in June), the National Stadium and the infrastructure around it (which will be ready), a new bridge spanning the Vistula to the north of the city, the work to connect the western world to Warsaw via a motorway - all these have made themselves felt to Warsaw's inhabitants and commuters.

If there's one project above all that's created transport headaches it's the construction work on the second (east-west) Metro line.

Above: looking north along Al. Jana Pawła II at what used to be a very busy roundabout (Rondo ONZ) - with ul. Prosta running off west towards Wola (to the left of the pic) and Świętokrzyska running east towards the Vistula (to the right). Note the remnants of the tram tracks in the roadway. Sometime towards the end of 2013 (if all goes to schedule) this will be the site of Rondo ONZ Metro station. What will happen with ul. Świętokrzyska - will it be pedestrianised? I do hope so.

It will be interesting to return to these pictures in a few years time and see how things have changed. In the meanwhile, Google Earth users - cut and paste these coordinates into the 'Fly to' box (52°13'59.32"N, 20°59'53.93"E) to see how Rondo ONZ looked before the work started (current satellite pic from April 2009).

Above: looking east along ul. Świętokrzyska, towards the Vistula. Below: the same view, in Google Earth with 3D buildings switched on. Crowdsourcing works! (the skyscraper on ul. Tamka is missing, however... anyone care to model it?)

Ah - and work at Dworzec Centralny is now pretty much finished - all four platforms and the three passageways connecting them are all open. The shops in the commercial passages are starting to fill up with new and smart retailers - no cooking allowed, so none of that atrocious smell of burnt casein that used to permeate the north and south passages.