Interstices - S2, S7, S79

These are places where soon, the casual walker won't be able to visit. Fencing is going up around the roadworks; before long, the entire junction will be open, with new connections from north to south, south to north, east to south, south to east, west to south and south to west. When the junction was built, it connected only the S2 to the S79 (running into Warsaw, passing the airport); the southern end was a stump terminating in fields that is now turning into the S7 extension. And so for several years, the junction only served traffic flowing east to west, west to east, east to north, north to east, west to north and north to west. So - time for a peek into the new sliproads that will soon be roaring with traffic.

Below: this view you'll get from your rear-view mirror as you drive onto the S2 (westbound) from the S7. This tunnel under the S79 was completed in 2013, when the S79 opened for traffic, connecting to the east-west S2. But this tunnel was built to connect the S7 extension to the S2 westbound. At the time, it was believed that the S7 extension would be ready by 2020. 

Below: since September 2013, these lights have been on, day and night, for over eight and half years. Meanwhile, the local street-art community has been busy. You don't see graffiti on the walls of most tunnels (Wisłostrada, for example), because they are opened soon after completion.

Below: out in the open, the view drivers will have as they prepare to sweep to the right and merge with the S2 westbound, visible in the distance. And then on to Poznań, Berlin and - ultimately - Lisbon.

Below: not really deserving the status of 'tunnel', the link between the S7 and S2 eastbound merely dives under the bridge carrying the Warsaw-Radom railway line. Again, this sliproad has stood idle since being completed in 2013.

Below: abandoned railway infrastructure. Unlike the old signal box, some 80m to the north, this building (I guess a machine room operating the switchgear?) has survived. The signal box was demolished in 2017 during the modernisation work of the Warsaw-Radom railway, its role supplanted by a new digitally enabled control-centre just north of W-wa Okęcie station. Overhead, a KLM Cityhopper Embraer ERJ 190 on final approach, and hurrying south, a Koleje Mazowieckie train on its way to Radom.

If I go in there, I'll see goodness knows what. Let's go and look. There's always some trepidation when entering abandoned buildings; there may be ne'er-do-wells within. But consciously precluding that possibility, I enter. Uninhabited. And amazingly devoid of empty bottles and tins - the outdoor-drinking community are put off by the prospect of having to cross three railway tracks or an expressway.

Below: the same artists that daubed the tunnel?

Below: Google Earth is amazing. The 3D imagery extends well south of Warsaw Okęcie, this view is stunning. North is in the top-right corner.

Below: finally, the same junction, in full, from Open Street Maps. I've marked in red the sections photographed; the south-to-west sliproad and tunnel, the abandoned railway building and the short south-to-east sliproad.

This time last year:
Joys of Spring

This time two years ago:
Jeziorki in May

This time three years ago:

Spitalfields and Smithfields - more from London

This time five years ago

That tune going round your head now...

This time six years ago:
The eyes... the eyes... 

This time seven years ago:
New old terminal open at Okęcie airport

This time nine years ago:
Arrogance vs. humility 

This time ten years ago:
Warsaw looking good ahead of the football-fan influx

This time 11 years ago:
Heron over Jeziorki

This time 15 years ago:
Present rising, future loading