Grabów, Krasnowola and Jeziorki Północne

Not that often that I visit the north of my little manor - Jeziorki Północne north of ulica Sporna, up and over the S2 and into Grabów. Once I used to drive the children to school this way every morning. Many years ago. What was driven is now walked. So, join me for a stroll.

Below: the bottom end of ul. Kujawiaka, where it meets ul. Jeziorki. This muddy track, maybe three metres wide, is a proper Warsaw street; the sign informs taxi drivers where Zone 2 begins, the Warsaw equivalent of  "double-time on the metre, guv." What taxi driver would like to venture down here?

Ul. Kujawiaka was once called ul. Poloneza. Since the S2 cut a line across the Jeziorki-Grabów border, the lower part of it (1.5km) south of ul. Krasnowolska, has been renamed, up to and including the viaduct that crosses the S2 and the Metro's rail link to the outside world. From the narrow muddy path, above, to a four-lane road in a few hundred metres. The northern end, north of ul. Krasnowolska, retains the Poloneza name.

Below: S2 heading east, photo taken from ul. Kujawiaka. Note the railway line to the right of the photo - this is the Metro rail link.

Below: 400m separates a muddy path to a four-lane viaduct - the same road. Ul. Kujawiaka, looking towards its northern end, where it joins ul. Krasnowolska.

Below: Krasnowola bus loop - end of the line, by a decorated wayside chapel. This is where the 239 terminates, a weekdays-only local line linking Grabów with the metro. The bus stop is numbered 51, the '5' prefix suggests a temporary location. When the 239 was inaugurated in January 2018, WTP stated that this would be the case, with the intention of finally locating a permanent bus loop some half a kilometre further west (ul. Tramblanki). With the S2 tunnel now open and the S7 extension nearing completion, perhaps WTP will get round to finalising this route...

Below: repurposed brick - ul. Poloneza, south of  ul. Krasnowolska. The building (also visible in the photo above) was built during WW2 by the German occupiers to house force labour. In the late 1990s/early years of this century, it was used as a dziupla ('hidey-hole') for car thieves, who'd bring stolen cars here to be dismantled for parts. Since then, it has been converted into trendy apartments!

Below:  the 160-year old Willa Krasnowola - I wrote about this crumbling ruin nearly 14 years ago (June 2008); it's still there - neither demolished, nor repurposed - just standin' over there, decaying.

Below: looking along the unelectrified coal-train line to Okęcie sidings. To the left, the lights of the S79 expressway, set low under the flightpath to Runway 33 of Warsaw Okęcie airport. The  twin-track electrified mainline is to the left of the entirely separate single-track coal-train line.

Below: the Metro rail link, looking towards the lights of Mordor (Służewiec Przemysłowy as was, now one of Warsaw's main office districts).

Below: the Metro rail link looking towards Ursynów and the curved bridge carrying it over the S2. From here, across ul. Puławska and into the Las Kabacki forest, the line runs parallel to the expressway.

Below: ul. Hołubcowa, south of the viaduct. Another one of Warsaw's roads that runs out of asphalt and carries on to its end in the form of a muddy track meandering through fields - a track capable of swallowing cars (even 4x4s) up to their axles in thick goo.

Below: ul. Sztajerki, caught in the crook of two expressways a main railway line and international airport. Otherwise, a quiet backwater of Warsaw, around 7 miles from the city centre. Like so many streets in Zielony Ursynów ('green Ursynów') west of ul. Puławska, from Poleczki in the north to Sarabandy in the south, are named after dances. A 'sztajerek' is a folk-dance related the Ländler, being a dance in 3/4 time once popular in Austria, Bavaria, German Switzerland, and Slovenia.

Left: looking towards the top end of ul. Kujawiaka. In the foreground a small pond - the land here is poorly drained. Although there's a fair amount of traffic turning onto Kujawiaka from ul. Ludwinowska, there's little traffic continuing along Ludwinowska heading for ul. Sztajerka. Note the luminous green orb by the tree in the foreground - an internal reflection within the lens of the streetlight diagonally opposite it in the frame.

Left: ul. Kujawiaka again, this time heading back down south towards ul. Jeziorki. An airliner is on final approach to touchdown at the airport.

Miserable but warm weather (10C) and cloudy; not the stuff of flashbacks, blue skies, sparkling snow and a crisp frost. A different atmosphere altogether. Maybe flashbacks for another time, and another place.

This time four years ago:
1929-1939; 2008-2018?

This time six years ago:
Track works between W-wa Okęcie and W-wa Dawidy

This time eight years ago:
The benefits of extending the human lifespan 

This time 11 years ago:
New Year's stocktaking

This time last 12 years ago:
A walk in the wild winter woods

This time 13 years ago:
Now that's what I call winter vol. 12

This time 14 years ago:
When the day starts getting longer

Google Earth updates Warsaw

Hurrah! The latest release of satellite photos of Warsaw on Google Earth is always a cause for excitement, and the latest iteration shows just how quickly Poland's capital is developing. I will focus on Jeziorki, that cool, cult, iconic, exclusive, south-south-western corner of the Hipster City Among Nations. To live here is to live the Chosen Life. [I await a feature about Jeziorki in a forthcoming edition of the FT's monthly How To Spend It supplement.]

Below: my immediate vicinity - note presence of new Biedronka and Lidl, adding variety, value. convenience and proximity to my retail needs. Biedronka for mature Cheddar cheese at a knock-down price, Lidl for kiełbasa polska długodojrzewająca. And the flood retention ponds - Pozytywka and Nosal - have been deepened and enprettified. (Not even the word remont does justice to the improvement.) Click to see both images at 100%.

August 2014

April 2011

Moving further north, Jeziorki's fabled wetlands have been tamed and are now Warsaw's largest body of standing water.What was a boggy marsh, incapable of soaking up the floodwaters that our rapidly changing climate delivers with greater frequency, has now become civilised, a lovely place for recreation and an effective sump for water running off local fields. Note the late-summer algae bloom on the middle pond.

August 2014

April 2011

Let us move north once again to see how the junction of the S2 and S79 look today, and how they looked back in April 2011. And the viaducts carrying ul. Złote Lany, Hołubocowa and Poloneza over the S2.

August 2014

April 2011

And finally, let's move north once again to look at ul. Poleczki - this time going all the way back to March 2007, just before this blog was launched, and comparing it to how it looks now. Note the doubling of Poleczki, the viaduct over the railway line, the S79, Poleczki Business Park and many other new developments. Despite all this new activity, the number of buses serving this thriving area has actually decreased since then.

August 2014

April 2007

So then. Huge progress wherever you look. Something worth considering when voting locally or nationally.

Below: dusk falls upon God's own suburb, Jeziorki.

This time last year:
Liverpool's waterfront (a city worth seeing, cheap and easy to get to from Warsaw)

Judging Mr Guział by his works

The local government elections are not till 16 November. And yet, for the past few weeks, the innocent, juvenile face of Piotr Guział, mayor of the Warsaw district of Ursynów, has been staring down on the capital's voters. For Mr Guział has ambitions to replace Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz as prezydent miasta (mayor) of Warsaw.

So I welcomed the opportunity (thank you Neighbour for the reminder) to pop by the school on ul. Kajakowa on my way home for a public meeting with Mr Guział about matters pertinent to Jeziorki (and indeed the whole of Zielony Ursynów, the part of the district to the west of ul. Puławska).

Impressions? Rather than the angelic youth beaming down upon the people of Warsaw, an older, street-fighting political operator, in his element among a crowd of disgruntled voters. Educated at SGH (Warsaw School of Economics) where he majored in local government finance, the 39 year-old has spent his life in public administration and local politics. A man of the Left, he drifted in and out of several left-wing formations before allying himself and his localist Nasz Ursynów group with PiS (Law and Justice) in attempting to oust Ms Gronkiewicz-Waltz last October.

Positives - Mr Guział knows his patch. Whatever street was mentioned by people at the meeting - he knew where it was, and what the issue was. Very good grasp of detail.

Negatives - Mr Guział is not the best orator I've listened to; his diction is garbled, telescoping one word into the next. But above all, it's spychotechnika or buck-passing. While we understand that sewers are the responsibility of MPWiK, buses of ZTM, main roads of ZDM etc, he should be more proactive in supporting local residents in their fights to get good drainage and roads.

[Sadly, I wrote a longer post but I must have pressed the wrong key, because when I returned to this page, the second half had disappeared; I don't have time this morning to recreate it. Suffice to say I'll vote for Ms Gronkiewicz-Waltz again in November on the basis of the vast improvement the city's enjoyed on her watch. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.]

Follow-up Friday 11 July, 9:30am. Less than two weeks after this meeting, Mr Guział honoured his promise to visit residents of ul. Achillesa about asphalting the two bits of ul. Nawłocka together.

Click here for an account of this meeting in Polish from the Halo Ursynów website

This time last year:
Communication breakdown

This time two years ago:
Getting ready for the opening of Modlin airport
[Amazing to recall that it opened, closed for nearly a year, and has been functioning normally since last October...]

This time seven years ago:
Maybugs in July - a plague of cockchaffers

Call 19115 Warsaw fix-my-street

Passing the Palace of Culture on Monday, I noticed a huge billboard on it bearing the number 19115 and the Syrena, the mermaid symbol of Warsaw in the corner, and the word 'Warszawa' above the '115' (click to enlarge). I was none the wiser until I saw today's Gazeta Stołeczna, which explained all. Launched on Monday by our mayor Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz, who remains in office after an inquorate referendum to remove her, this is a new one-stop shop service enabling citizens to notify urban problems such as pot-holes or broken street lamps. Below: the Palace of Culture, now flanked by Zlota 44 to its left (with a hideous blue neon stripe running up its side) and the Cosmopolitan building to the right.

A Warsaw-only service mirroring the UK's FixMyStreet, Warszawa19115 is a phone number, website and smart-o-fon app that channels all complaints onto one desk where... they will get fixed? We shall see...

What's already apparent is that Ms Gronkiewicz-Waltz is not intending to waste the months before the next local authority elections. Last month's referendum served as a wake-up call; if anything, it will prompt her into greater activity, thus increasing her chances of being re-elected for a third term of office.

My wish list for Warszawa19115? Clear up the mess left by builders of ul. Kórnicka /ul. Dumki. The retention ponds are finished, but there's a lot of rubble and muck left behind. Provide ul. Karczunkowska with a pavement. Put asphalt down on ul. Poloneza between ul. Krasnowolska and ul. Poleczki. Put asphalt down on ul. Hołubcowa (about 80% of it is still a dirt track). And get on with it before the elections.

I've just registered the state of affairs on ul. Kórnicka on www.Warszawa19115.pl; I'll keep you informed as to progress. As of now, I've had an e-mail confirming that my complaint has been noted.

UPDATE: Two days later, Thursday, 7 November. I get this message from the City Hall...

Zgłoszenie o numerze 104155/13 zarejestrowane w dniu 05-11-2013 o godzinie 22:33:58 uzyskało status: Zamknięte.
Jesteśmy do Państwa dyspozycji 24 godziny na dobę przez 7 dni w tygodniu.
Zapraszamy na Portal www.warszawa19115.pl
Z poważaniem, Urząd m.st. Warszawy.

Let's run that through Google Translate...

Report number 104155/13 registered on 05-11-2013 at 10:33:58 p.m. obtained Status: Closed.
We are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Welcome to the portal www.warszawa19115.pl
Sincerely, The City Warsaw. 

This time last year:
Vapour trails at sunset

This time two years ago:
Autumnal blues

To vote or not to vote in Sunday's mayoral referendum?

For readers outside of Poland; Warsaw's mayor, Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz faces a no-confidence referendum this coming Sunday, brought about by an alliance of opposition party PiS and local Ursynów district mayor Piotr Guział. For her to be kicked out of office, a majority from a turnout of 29% of the eligible electorate is required. In other words, 14.5% +1 of all registered voters in Warsaw.

This is political opportunism riding the wave of public protests that followed recent public transport price hikes. Has HG-W had her day? I don't know. I'm against public money being spent on a referendum to oust an incumbent that will face regular local government elections in less than a year's time; having heard PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński on the radio the other day, I can see his policy (rather than political) arguments are wafer-thin and this referendum really boils down to right-wing PiS trying to cash in on leftie discontent for party-political reasons.

So - the dilemma facing me on Sunday is do I go to vote (to keep HG-W in), or do I boycott the referendum as being a waste of time and money?

Before I make my mind up as whether to vote or not, I'd like to know more about the division of responsibility between City Hall and district hall. Who's really responsible for ul. Karczunkowska still not having a pavement? Who's really responsible for the appalling state of ul. Hołubcowa? (not so much as street as a giant puddle used for dumping household and construction waste) Who's really responsible for the lack of asphalt on ul. Poloneza (between ul. Jeziorki and ul. Ludwinowska, and between ul. Krasnowolska and Platan Park?

Guział or Gronkiewicz-Waltz? Where does the buck stop in issues concerning the city, and issues concerning individual districts (in our case Ursynów)?

The referendum is spurious. If less than 29% of eligible voters within Warsaw's city limits turn out to vote, the result is null and void. So - given that most of those who will be going to the ballot boxes on Sunday are PiS-ites and assorted fellow-travellers, surely those who wish to see HG-W seeing out the last nine months of her second term of office should stay at home, and let the febrile political posturings play themselves out against a vacuum of indifference?

I'm genuinely in need of advice here - smart tactical voting decisions. Gazeta Stołeczna gives me no lead - for every tactician there's an ideologist wedded to the notion that the right to vote was hard-won and should always be exercised. I'm tending towards the former view, but would be interested to see what readers think - I'd be grateful for your suggestions (you don't need to be a registered Warsaw voter to contribute).

And indeed, if you think that HG-W should go - please tell me why... Maybe you can still convince me. Four days till the polls open.

This time last year:
Gorgeous cars from Czechoslovakia

This time two years ago:
Donald Tusk and Co. get re-elected

This time three years ago:
Poland's wonderful bread

This time four years ago:
An October Friday in Warsaw

Poloneza - asphalt at last!

A lovely surprise when I cycled to work on Monday morning - lo and behold the promises made by Ursynów mayor Piotr Guział have been fulfilled, and ahead of time. At last there is asphalt on the 240-metre long stretch of road between the new viaduct carrying ul. Poloneza over the S2 Southern Warsaw By-pass and ul. Ludwinowska. At last it will be possible to drive or cycle over this bit in all weathers without fear of being bogged down axle-deep in mud.

Below: looking north from Ludwinowska, Monday morning. Click to enlarge; you will see many vehicles using this road. Some are using Poloneza as an alternative route to jammed-up ul. Puławska, but I guess the majority of the drivers work around ul. Poleczki, the new Business Park, or Platan Park, or the DHL depot, or the new office developments of Służewiec.

Below: looking south from the viaduct towards Ludwinowska in the distance. Four lanes go down into one-and-half; the newly asphalted section is not very wide. Still, traffic tends to flow north in the morning rush hour, south in the evening, so no great problem. Speed bumps here will be useful in slowing down the sad maniac element.

But there's more. Mr Guział has promised to asphalt the 1km-stretch of ul. Poloneza north of ul. Krasnowolska, passing the Grabów cemetery and linking up with the civilised stretch at the north end of Poloneza by Platan Park. This will happen next year, presumably before the local government elections.

Before Mr Guział gets to smug, let me remind him about the 1km stretch of ul. Hołubcowa between ul. Poloneza and Sztajerki (below). This bit, next to W-wa Dawidy railway station, is an utter disgrace. Behold. Puddles spanning the width of the road, rubbish and building waste unceremoniously dumped, a stretch of public road, well within Warsaw's (and Ursynów's) boundaries, that is totally impassable to all but pedestrians in wellington boots or heavy-duty off-road vehicles. This, Mr Guział, is a bloody disgrace and deserves attention before you stand for re-election. Before long, the viaduct carrying Hołubcowa over the S2 will be ready, but as with the Poloneza viaduct until now, it will be connected to the outside world by muddy dirt-tracks.

More good news for cyclists, in another part of town: one of the three north-bound lanes of ul. Spacerowa, between Gagarina and Goworka has been turned into a cycle path (below). This is a steep and laborious stretch up the Vistula escarpment which is a part of my regular journey from the TokFM studios to my office. Not having to jostle with cars makes the half-kilometre climb safer and more pleasant.

This time last year:
A welcome splash of colour to a drab car park

This time two years ago:
To Hel and back in 36 hours

This time four years ago:
Honing the Art of the Written Word

This time five years ago:
Of castles, dams and brass bands

Late-winter commuting, northern Jeziorki

Conditions for commuting by car through Jeziorki at this time of year have been made even more unspeakable by the closure of ul. Hołubcowa (below). Work continues on the S2 Southern Warsaw Bypass (Południowa Obwodnica Warszawy), cutting the road in two, while the new viaduct that's going to carry Hołubcowa over the S2 is probably another two years from completion (given the pace at which the Poloneza viaduct was finished).

This means that with the closure of ul. Oberka - for good - the only way to get from Jeziorki to Grabów and Wyczółki beyond other than joining the slow-moving traffic on ul. Puławska - is ul. Poloneza. I've written about this before; a super-duper four-lane viaduct with crash barriers and floodlighting connected to the roads of Jeziorki by 260 metres of mud, below. This, apparently, would cost 500,000 złotys to asphalt, but the city authorities would rather spend six times that sum on a New Year's Eve bash on Pl. Konstytucji.

Meanwhile, people have to go this way to work. The short film below shows just what it's like to take a small car over this stretch of road. The alternative to this is a four-kilometre detour along a road that's already choked to the point of near immobility.


(Thanks to my driver, Marzena, for risking her car's suspension on this 'road'!)

This time four years ago:
Lent and Recession - a nice parallel

This time five years ago:
Early intimations of spring (no such luck this year!)

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.

Poloneza viaduct open: now what?

Well, at last - after waiting since October 2009, ul. Poloneza is officially deemed open. Local traffic no longer has to worry about whether or not barriers will await them as they try to cross. So, from ul. Krasnowolska one can drive onto Poloneza (this section was once called ul. Mazurka), and using the four-lane superhighway cross over the S2 southern Warsaw bypass (still under construction).

Above: looking north up ul. Poloneza - a proud sight indeed. And a turn-off for ul. Gawota (right foreground). But let's turn now through 180 degrees from the same spot (below)... and we see Poloneza as it is for the majority of its length - a narrow, muddy track sporting many edge-to-edge puddles.



Local TV news has picked this story up - good. A typical case of buck-passing. The General Directorate of National Roads and Motorways (GDDKiA) says it only needed to have built the flyover crossing the new bypass. The district of Ursynów says it has no money in its multi-annual budget to lay some asphalt from the end of the new viaduct to ul. Ludwinowska.



What worries local residents is what will happen when ul. Hołubcowa is inevitably closed to traffic - it currently runs over the track of the new S2 and at some point it must be closed; there is a new viaduct being built over Hołubcowa, but if it will be built at the same tempo as the one over Poloneza, it will be over a year and half before it is officially opened.

The imminent closure of Hołubcowa will condemn local drivers to the hell that is Poloneza - a road that can swallow cars once the muddy season takes hold. The city authorities must take immediate action to lay some tarmac on the 260 metres that separate Ludwinowska and the new viaduct.

Update 13 November:

Gazeta Wyborcza has caught up with the Poloneza story: here. And a short video (after a short ad) showing the daily morning rush hour absurdity, below.

Otworzyli wiadukt donikąd. Kierowcy grzęzną w bagnie

This time four years ago:
To Lepiarzówka, on the Polish-Czech border

This time five years ago:
Its Independence Day

Poloneza update: ul Gawota opened

Hallelujah! Someone's seen sense at last; the two concrete barriers blocking ul. Gawota from the new viaduct carrying ul. Poloneza over the S2 have been pushed aside. I don't know how long this convenient state of affairs will last, but for the time being there's an open road link between the residential streets of Jeziorki Północne and Grabów.


Left: the absurdity of it all. A mega-over-engineered viaduct linking two dirt-tracks. The cost of the unnecessary lanes, crash barriers, street lighting, etc, could have gone into laying down asphalt on ul. Poloneza. Just look a these puddles - these have appeared after one day's heavy rain. After several days and nights of rain, this stretch of road becomes a bog, capable of trapping the rash driver and his vehicle.

Right: these crash-barriers are built to withstand the impact of a 38-tonne truck hurtling along at 90km/h. And look at the street lighting. Entirely unjustified by the status of this local road. The money spent would have been better spent on the rest of this road, which is a veritable embarrassment to Warsaw.

Above: a no-entry sign at the northern end of the new stretch of road. It should either be enforced or removed; as it is, it stands as a mockery to the notion of regulated public roadways.

I fear that this state of affairs will continue until the road-builders deign to show up again and finally finish what they said they would in December 2010. When they do turn up (next spring?), they will close off access to the viaduct from all sides once again. Still, at least the viaduct is currently passable. To local traffic, in the know.

This time last year:
Fixie composition in blue and red

This time two years ago:
What's the Polish for 'guidelines'?

This time three years ago:
Ul. Rosoła's cycle path - new route to work

This time four years ago:
First apple (then three years without apples, now an overload!)

This time five years ago:
Late summer spiders webs

Same old same old on ul. Poloneza

The bridge was meant to have been ready in December 2010. It still isn't; minor finishing-off work is still needed (to my eye a final lick of asphalt and some road marking). The four-lane viaduct carrying ul Poloneza (nothing more than a dirt-track at its northern and southern ends, but a splendid piece of engineering as it crosses over the way-past-its-deadline S2) is still officially closed to traffic.

Below: the builders have thrown up a rampart of earth and rubble to stop cars from driving onto the 99.9% ready bridge. They are not working to complete it, but in the meantime will not let anyone use it. The alternative, as I have repeatedly written, is a 2.3km detour, having to drive through a far busier building site than this one. This situation hasn't changed in ten months!

Below: this is not stopping determined drivers from skirting round it. Although I heard the sound of the front spoiler on this Opel Astra scraping the hardened ground most horribly. A detour only for four-wheel drives, I fear.

Right: access to ul. Gawota (in the distance) is blocked by two concrete road blocks. For residents and their visitors, this must be utterly galling.The bridge that would connect them to ul. Krasnowolska tantalises them with its almost-readiness. And yet, dog-in-the-manger style (pies ogrodnika in Polish) the builders that are not finishing the bridge are simultaneously not letting locals use it. Most frustrating.

Below: looking south towards Jeziorki. At the bottom of the ramp, the asphalt stops, and ul. Poloneza becomes a dirt-track once more. Warsaw's highways authority, ZDM, has not thought this one through. For a fraction of the cost of this four-lane bridge, ZDM could have asphalted the whole of ul. Poloneza, all the way from ul. Jeziorki to Platan Park.

When will it be ready? No rush. Although the pace of work along the S2/S79 has accelerated, the whole project is unlikely to be completed until the end of next year; I guess Poloneza will wait that long too.

This time last year:
New urban toponyms: "P+R Al. Krakowska" = Okęcie

This time two years ago:
Politics - a change of gear

This time three years ago:
On preference and genetics

This time four years ago:
"GET IN THE BACK OF THE VAN!"

Latest aerial photos of S2 progress

A business flight to Gdańsk and back gives me the chance to get some aerial photos of progress (or lack thereof) on the 'Elka' - S79-S2 expressways running to the south-west of Warsaw.

Below: looking along ul. Poloneza, the viaduct to nowhere. Just to the right of the photo, the road peters out into a dirt track. In any case, the city roads department (ZDM) has blocked it off at either end to prevent anyone from using it.

The great big hole in the S2, west of the Poloneza viaduct, has been filled in and asphalted - marks for that. The two junctions at either end, Węzeł Lotnisko and Węzeł Puławska, are far from ready, as I've mentioned recently.

Below: Węzeł Lotnisko, looking west, where the S2 intersects the S79. The southbound carriageways of the latter then stop dead in the middle of a field. No immediate plans to extend.


Left: looking west along the S2 towards Węzeł Puławska, ul. Poloneza in the foreground. It looks as though the main focus of the work is to maintain smooth traffic flow along ul. Puławska; enthusiasm for finishing the job has evaporated.

Below: looking down onto Węzeł Puławska. The prospects of an eastern extension of the S2 in the foreseeable future look bleak.

This time two years ago:
Up Ćwilin

This time three years ago:
Sunset across the tracks, Nowa Iwiczna

This time four years ago:
The storm the forecasters missed

This time five years ago:
Peacocks in the park