No, this will be the last summer before the S7...

Things take a little longer than expected... Three days ago, the consortium that won the tender to extend the S7 from Grójec to the airport submitted a request to the governor of Mazowsze for permission to go ahead and build. This should be a formality, and given the lack of political obstacles here, preparatory work should begin in time so that the construction can get under way next spring. The next real deadline will be to remove trees from the route before birds start nesting (okres lęgowy). So this summer will be the last, not last summer!

There are crops in the field right now, and the houses that will need to be demolished (on Baletowa, in Nowa Wola for example), still have people living in them.

Below: looking across from ul Postępu in Zgorzała towards ul. Wróbelka. The inhabitants of those houses will endure three-four years of disruption before acoustic fences wall them off from the constant roar of the S7's traffic.

Below: looking down the footpath that connects Dawidy Bankowe with the railway track.

Below: looking towards Zamienie, the S7 will run parallel to the tracks before diverging south-west. This remote field is full of bird life, the song of the skylark, home also to marsh harriers and lapwings. I doubt they'll stay once the asphalt's buzzing with traffic.

Below: looking towards town; fields of oats, barns, the airport - and then the metropolis. Buildings in the middle distance will make way for the asphalt.

Below: repairing the power lines, Zamienie. Yesterday's storm was unusual in that it was heralded by a massive dust storm, some 90 minutes before the first rains. An intense wind; at first I thought I was being struck in the face by hailstones - it turned out they were real stones - much larger than grains of sand. I must say - in all my 60 years, I've never experienced such a climatic event.

Yes, the climate is changing and we must change our habits to slow down the negative effects of that change.

UPDATE: JAN 2019. It looks like 2019 will be the last summer (or maybe not) - yes, work is getting under way on the S7 connection between Grójec and the S79 at the airport - but from the Grójec end. No signs of any clearing work that precedes major road-building projects in the fields south of Węzeł Warszawa Południe (formerly Węzeł Lotnisko).

This time last year:
Nostalgia, ideology, aesthetics, emotions

This time three years ago:
Civilisation and barbarism - how the former deals with the latter

This time four years ago:
Ahead of the opening of Jeziorki's Biedronka

This time five years ago:
New views of Jeziorki

This time six years ago:
Motorway finally links (the outskirts of) Łódź and (the outskirts of) Warsaw

This time nine years ago:
Kraków Air Museum

This time ten years ago:
Quintessential Jeziorki

This time 11 years ago: 
Little boxes, Mysiadło