Friday 31 May 2019

It's the 31st of May and where's the viaduct?

Another deadline has come and gone. The viaduct carrying ul. Karczunkowska over the railway line at W-wa Jeziorki station was meant to have been opened in late-December 2016; late-December 2017; August 2018; December 2018; March 2019 and now May 2019 and it still isn't. Not a bad thing, mind you; once it is open it will mean far more traffic tearing up and down Karczunkowska, which still has no pavement for a crucial 200m of its length between ul. Nawłocka and Trombity.

When will the viaduct be open? There's still much to do. For starters, the final layer of asphalt needs to be laid. No fewer than 13 pedestrian crossings with zebras and road signs need to be put down. Road markings - the white lines - need painting. The cycle path along the south side of the viaduct needs to be completed. Around 30m of balustrades have be installed on either side of the viaduct between the steps down to platform/street level. Four level-access lifts need to be installed. And this is just the viaduct - the park + ride is nowhere to be seen (although the access road to it has just had the first layers of asphalt applied). The bus loop is nearly done but requires asphalt. Station signage is being put up - plenty of new signs, white on dark blue, the process will not take long.

Signing off the entire project and opening the bridge to traffic will take ages. The case of the 100m-stretch of ul. Sokola (part of the Trasa Świętokrzyska) between ul, Jagiellońska and ul. Targowa is worth bearing in mind. The construction work was completed in December 2017, and opened 17 months later because the acoustic screens were deemed unacceptable to the authorities. The level-access lifts at Czachówek Południowy station are still not ready, a year and half after the rest of the work there was completed.

A frantic burst of activity this morning, but to no avail - another deadline missed.


Yesterday these signs below were awaiting placement - now they're up.


Get used to them! All of a sudden, Karczunkowska looks like an important thoroughfare, rather than a pavement-free local byway that most villages of Podkarpacie would be ashamed of.




Below: this morning - the signs are up. No balustrades or safety barriers over the tracks, only temporary measures.


Below: this time on Wednesday, 30 May 2018. Progress but at a slow pace.


Below: up top - waiting for the last lick of asphalt; the first application of a cycle path.


Below: looking down at where the Park + Ride will be; parking for 67 cars. Like, less than a bus-full of people. Other than providing an access road to the P+R, paved and lit, work to actually build it has not even begun. Note the lack of permanent balustrades to the left - still waiting for these, only temporary barriers at the moment.


Well guys, no rush. Just come up with yet another deadline, and miss it... I won't miss the extra volume of new traffic.

This time two years ago:
My mother's school - subject of exhibition at national army museum

This time three years ago:
Stormy end to May

This time four years ago:
Where's it better to live: London or Warsaw?

This time five years ago:
Jeziorki, magic hour, late-May

This time seven years ago:
Świdnica, one of Poland's lesser-known pearls

This time ten years ago:
Spirit of place


2 comments:

Ian said...

Even I cannot come up with any positive feeling about the eventual opening of this bridge. Will the S79 be any better?

Michael Dembinski said...

@Ian

S79 (at least at our end) is a disaster - plans put back, nothing going on... establishing internally within the highways agency GDDKiA what's gone wrong... Not this year, not next year will work begin I guess :-(

At the Grójec end things are happening - but so what? Will not be connected to anything useful to us.