Along ul. Hołubcowa to work

With the move of  my client's offices to Poleczki Business Park (see previous post), I'm discovering new ways to work. This morning - on foot. Instead of walking down Poloneza to the end, I cut across along the Metro spur (the rarely-used line connecting Warsaw's Metro to the outside railway network), below. Looming out of the fog is the new viaduct being built to carry ul. Hołubcowa over the S2. It's quarter past seven and workers are already busy on the building site, along the length of the S2.

Ul. Hołubcowa is very busy at this time of the morning. Poloneza may have re-opened, but uncertainty as to whether the boggy, 240m-long dirt-track section of the road will swallow their cars before their get to the new bridge persuades most drivers to stick to Hołubcowa. Below: the crossing of the S2. My guess is that the road-builders will want to close this crossing to traffic before the viaduct is ready. This will cause huge problems to drivers; there will be no alternative but to use the treacherous ul. Poloneza.

Having passed the handful of houses at the far end of ul. Krasnowolska, I proceed through Grabów (which starts at the Metro railway line and continues as far as ul. Pląsy - a fearfully boggy track linking Poloneza and Taneczna beyond to the DHL depot on ul. Osmańska. We are less than six miles (9.5km) from the very centre of Warsaw, and yet the landscape is entirely countryside. Below: mugwort, the characteristic plant of these parts, turns black and brittle when it dies; the result looks like the fields on either side of Hołubcowa have been scorched by fire.

Below: fewer cars use the northern end of Hołubcowa, but I suspect traffic will intensify as more corporate employers move into Poleczki Business Park. Every single car that passed me was clearly marked as a company vehicle; private car owners would not risk their pride-and-joy along this road. It looks OK now, but we've have several dry days.

Near the end, out of Grabów and into Wyczółki. Hołubcowa ends abruptly on ul. Jakuba Mortkowicza; in theory Hołubcowa should join Poleczki; in practice it is cut off by the business park, and stump of road calling itself Hołubcowa runs between the buildings and out on the main road. There's even a bus stop called Hołobcowa on Poleczki, though it only serves the northernmost outpost of this 4km-long thoroughfare.

Below: barakowóz (barrack-wagon) parked up along ul. Jakuba Mortkiewicza, named after printer, publisher and co-founder of newsagent chain RUCH. Beyond the sheet-metal fencing, Poleczki Business Park, where more new office blocks will soon spring up.

Along with ul. Poloneza, ul. Hołubcowa is yet another example of a road that the city authorities have ignored despite hugely increased traffic volumes. The development of the Służewiec office district, the growth of cargo businesses (such as DHL on ul. Osmańska for one) around the airport and the suburbanisation that's occurred south of Warsaw's borders mean that these two dirt-tracks, once exclusively used for moving tractors from one field to another, have taken on a new significance for the city's traffic flows. And yet the authorities have done next to nothing to recognise this.