S7 extension section 'A' end-to-end

Thanks to Paul W and Moni!

The Christmas break on the construction site of the S7 gives the curious a good opportunity to check out the local stretch of this major infrastructure project. A chance to walk odcinek A ('stretch' or 'section A') from one end to another, and in particular to the southern end, which I've never yet seen.

Both sections have been troubled by contractual issues. Odcinek A was originally meant to have been built by Rubau; the contactor fell foul of terms and conditions and the contract was annulled before any work has started; Polaqua went on to win the new tender (more than double the price of Rubau's bid). Now 22 months after it began work on the project, Polaqua has displayed a staggeringly fast pace. 

Odcinek B has had a similar history, but here the initial contractor, IDS-Bud had actually made a start on the earthworks before being thrown off the contract for being too slow. Another firm, PTU Intercor, was finally selected earlier this year and is now getting on with it at a better pace, according to Skyscraper City's S7-extension watchers. [A quick aside - the first post about the S7 extension dates back to 2005; based on a press report claiming that the expressway between Warsaw and Grójec would be opened in 2008. One and half decades of over-optimism!]

Below: here's the southern end, where the two contracts meet. This point is about 150m south of ulica Słoneczna, the DW721 between Piaseczno and Magdalenka, In the foreground, odcinek A; concrete on the ground, most of the ancillary infrastructure (crash barriers, lighting, service roads) almost ready. Beyond the barriers begins odcinek B. It's Christmas Eve, heavy wet snow is falling, the temperature is just above 0C, but the snow is settling.

Below: from one of the detailed diagrams of the S7 extension (the whole of odcinek A is available for download here). Oriented with the south at the top, it shows the boundary between odcinek A and B, and ul. Słoneczna (DW721) passes underneath.

Below: underneath the bridge taking ul. Raszyńska over the S7, linking Nowa Wola to the west with Zgorzała to the east. No street lighting for the local traffic, but at least there's a pavement.

Below: looking north towards the new bridge carrying ul. Raszyńska over the S7. On the horizon, the cranes on the building sites of Zamienie, where new blocks of flats are continuing to appear amid the fields.

Below: ul. Krasickiego, running east-west from Nowa Iwiczna to Nowa Wola, passes through a tunnel under the S7. Looking west toward Nowa Wola.

Below: Paul's drone shots of the bridge on Christmas Day (much finer weather, -6C and clear skies), looking north.

Drones are just the thing for following the development of road-building projects!

Below: looking east towards Piaseczno - the S7 is crossed by a new viaduct carrying four lanes of road from nowhere to nowhere. This will, one day, be the DW (droga wojewódźka) 721 bis, relieving the heavy single-carriageway ul. Słoneczna. Trouble is, the residents of Konstancin further east aren't happy with the concept of a new road. Still, building infrastructure now in advance of projects that may not happen for another 15 years is not entirely new around here. In the middle distance, ul. Postępu (lit. 'Progress Street') runs north-south from Zgorzała towards Bobrowiec.

Meanwhile, Christmas Day saw Moni and me heading the other way along the S7 extension, to where it will meet the S79 (below), taking the expressway into central Warsaw. No progress since I last came here a few weeks ago.

Below: traditional farm building, Dawidy Zwykłe. Behind the house, acoustic screens and the S7. To the right, a logistics centre. Immediately behind me - the railway line. I hear the low rumble of an approaching coal train, and the distant 'ding-ding-ding' of the level crossing barriers as they descend...

Below: the fully laden coal train on its way to Siekierki power station.

The bridge over the S7 at Zamienie would be a good place for photographing planes on coming in to Warszawa Okęcie airport if there were a pavement along the side. But there isn't. Still - no traffic, no construction work, so on Christmas Day a chance for a snap. Below: LOT Polish Airlines Embraer ERJ 175 (Warmia i Mazury livery) on final approach.

New for 2021 in the most immediate neighbourhood - the view from our back garden looking towards ul. Trombity, where the old farmhouse and outbuildings have been pulled down to make way for a pair of modern bungalows.

This time two years ago:
Eighty-five chains to Hazelwood Station

This time three years ago:
Christmas round-up

This time five years ago:
Derbyshire at Christmas

This time six years ago:
Across the High Peaks

This time seven years ago:
Derbyshire's rolling landscapes

This time eight years ago:
Our Progress Around the Sceptr'd Isle 

This time nine years ago:
Out and about in Duffield

and...
Christmas Break

This time ten years ago:
Boxing Day walk in Derbyshire

This time 11 years ago 

Derbyshire in the snow

This time 13 years ago:

Derbyshire in the sunshine

This time 14 years ago:

Derbyshire in the drizzle

Nocturnal monochrome

Darkness falls earlier than at any other time of year. Work is pressing - it cannot be put off for the evening for delivery the next working day. So today and yesterday, my walk had to be done in darkness. In place of the standard kit lens (18-55mm f/3.5-4.5 zoom) I took a fixed focal-length 24mm f/2 old-school Nikkor, a lovely piece of metal and glass. All photos hand-held or with camera balanced on a post or wall, 3,200 ISO, 1/10 to 1/2 second, between f/2 and f/5.6.

Below: the corner of ulica Trombity and ul. Kórnicka. Nice starburst from the street lights.

Below: the far end of ul. Dawidowska on the Jeziorki side of the tracks. Will this quiet footpath be turned into a busy four-lane thoroughfare linking Zamienie via a new railway viaduct with ul. Puławska?

Below: ul. Dawidowska between ul. Buszycka and ul. Nawłocka. It would be a great shame to lose the rural charm of this corner of Jeziorki.

Below: the view from the far end of our garden.

Below: looking north-east from ul. Hołubcowa across the fields.

Below: a quiet moment on ul. Baletowa - the level-crossing gates are down a few hundred metres along the road.

Below: looking south across ul. Sporna towards ul. Baletowa in Dawidy.

Below: the S7 extension climbs to cross the tunnel over ul. Baletowa, the upright posts await the acoustic screens to be put in place.

Below: the S7/S7/S79 junction, Węzeł Lotnisko, looking east. Note the low-mounted lighting under the flight-path.

One colour photo - this is the southern end of the S79 - for the past eight years this stump, south of the S2 junction, has stood here, unused, terminating in a cabbage field. Every night since the rest of the S79 opened to traffic, this stump of road has been illuminated by these lights - how much electricity has been wasted?

This time last year:
The Darkest is upon us

This time two years ago:
The Body - A Guide for Occupants

This time six years ago:
Extreme weather and the British climate

This time eight years ago:
Cheaper public transport for Varsovians

This time nine years ago:
Swans on ice

This time ten years ago:
Cars

This time 11 years year:
What's the English for kombinować?

This time 13 years ago:
The demographics of jazz

This time 14 years ago:
A day in Poznań

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 

A wee small moment in Jeziorki history

...the day the keep fit kit was installed. By the northern end of ul. Dumki, close to where it joins ul. Kórnicka. The weather is awful. At daybreak the temperature barely exceeded zero degrees, and here we are approaching the middle of May. But let's not despair - summer will arrive, and here, less than 2,000 paces from home will soon be functioning an open-air gym, a good motivator to maintain fitness. So - a cycle of exercises will need to be devised to make the most of this municipal munificence. Worth remembering, though, that this is what we, the citizens of 'Green Ursynów'  voted for in the participatory budget for 2016.

Won't be long till the work's all done, the ploughed-up mess that's the upper end of ul. Dumki is restored to its natural state and local citizens can benefit from exercise.

Today was also the day that GDDKiA announced the winner of the tender to build the first section of the S7 expressway from Węzeł Lotnisko to Grójec (the stretch between where the S79 ends and Lesznowola). Any year now, then, work will start to extend the southern stump of the S79, which currently ends in a sincere field, and drag it down to join up with S7 at Grójec, in three states. The first stage - from the airport junction to Lesznowola will be of extreme interest to this blog, as it cuts through the fields between Jeziorki and Dawidy Bankowe, between Zamienie and Zgorzała, between Nowa Wola and Nowa Iwiczna.

Having followed the construction of the S2 and S79 ('Elka') and following the modernisation of the Warsaw-Radom railway line, the prospect of a new expressway coming this way excites me - new viaducts, new junctions - and eventually the prospect of Europe's trunk road network reaching conveniently close to my front door.

Below: I will remember when this was all fields. And they drove an expressway through them.

Weatherwise, it's such a lovely day!

The perfect day for taking off from Warsaw's Okęcie airport and looking at Mazowsze from the air. I'm off to Glasgow for three days. Everything goes smoothly - buses arrive on time to get me from home to the airport, I get through security without a pat-down, I get a good seat (3A), the plane departs on time - and here's a bonus - WizzAir no longer flies to "Glasgow" Prestwick, but to actual Glasgow Glasgow Airport, a mere 20 minutes by bus from the city centre.

So a perfect day for some aerial photography - good weather, good seat. Cloudless skies over a snow-covered Poland.

Below: Kabaty, the southern-most part of Warsaw's Ursynów district. In the bottom right, the Las Kabacki forest; in the top left, the houses and apartment blocks of Kabaty, and in between the Metro depot. In the distance, the Vistula escarpment and the floodplains beyond.

The plane swings around Warsaw, making a 270-degree loop before taking a bearing for Glasgow. Below: the Vistula, looking pretty frozen, with Zawady in the foreground, the Siekierki power station's chimneys in the middle-left of the photo. Trasa Siekierkowska, with the Siekierki bridge run east-west, with the district of Gocław lying on beyond the river.

Below: having taken off at midday, seven minutes later, we're back over the airport. The oval in the left foreground is the smaller of the two horse tracks at Wyścigi. Beyond the S2 expressway lies Raszyn ("fools Raszyn where angels fear to tread") - home of the legendary Fashion from Raszyn website. The town is to Warsaw what Slough is to London.

Below: Węzeł Salomea, the most recently opened junction on the S2. As is the case with Węzeł Warszawa Południe, the southern arm of the junction goes nowhere and stops dead in a field, awaiting the cash needed to extend it to join the S7 expressway running south out of Warsaw.

Left: cruising altitude reached. The plane's heading in a north-westerly direction, rather than flying due west for London. The darkish band crossing the photo from left to right in the middle distance is the Vistula river valley. Ground temperature is -3C. A dazzlingly beautiful day to be flying at 30,000 feet over Poland. As you can see, Mazowsze is as flat as a steamrollered pancake.


This time two years ago:
Temporary home of the National Film Library

This time three years ago:
Oldschool photochallenge

This time four years ago:
Warsaw's wonderful nooks and crannies

This time six years ago:
Viaduct to the airport at ul. Poleczki almost ready

Unnecessary lighting wastes money

I mentioned that from the train one can see the southern stump of the S79, beyond the S2 junction, all illuminated but with no traffic on it - and none expected this side of 2020. So I cycled down this evening to take a look. Yes indeed. Over 100 high-pressure sodium vapour lamps switched on... Each with a lifespan of 18,000 hours, or 1,500 days, or just over four years. So these lamps will probably have be changed twice before the S79 finally gets extended to become the S7 as it runs through Lesznowola down to Grójec.

In September, premier Donald Tusk announced that he has prioritised the completion of Warsaw's southern bypass, the S2, at the expense of the linking the S7 north and south of the capital with existing express roads, the S8 (to the north) and S79 (to the south). This means that this bit of road will remain unused for the whole of the 2014-2020 EU budget perspective and probably a few years into the next one. If there is a next one.

How much do these lights cost to keep switched on for an average of 12 hours a day? Below: a short film made while cycling along the unopen stretch of the S79, heading south. To the right, traffic coming down off the S79 merges with westbound traffic on the S2; to the left, traffic coming off the S2 merges with northbound traffic on the S79.



This is a fine example of public money being wasted through poor planning. This stretch of road had been almost completed - only the markings are missing; the crash barriers and lamps are there, the asphalt's up to the final layer.

I would dearly love to see this bit of road stretched southwards as soon as possible - if not to connect the S79 to Grójec, then at least to connect it to ul. Baletowa to relieve some of the local traffic and funnel it onto a proper dual carriageway. Or would it be too much to ask to have the S79/S7 be extended to Lesznowola to meet the Piaseczno to Magdalenka road?

Until then, the lights should be switched off here. Especially when there are stretches of the S2 and S79 which are open to traffic and are bathed in darkness at night, with the lighting switched off.

This is a wild estimate, but 100 lamps, each with 600W bulbs would use up around 200,000zł a year of electricity, plus the cost of replacing each light-bulb twice over the eight-year period.

Meanwhile, on the stretch of the S2 between ul. Poloneza and ul. Hołubcowa, the lamps are not switched on at night, leaving the expressway in the dark.

(I wrote about the premature switching-on of lighting on the north end of the S79 last November, but it would only be on for a mere nine months before the expressway was opened to traffic.)

Surely Poland's highways authority GDDKiA has better things to spend money on.

This time last year:
Warsaw's heros on the walls

This time two year:
Tax dodge or public service?

This time four years ago:
Warsaw's woodlands in autumn

This time five years ago:
Still here, the early snow

This time six years ago:
Another point of view

What a waste, what a waste...

Here we are then, at the southern stump of the S79. The bit of the contract beyond the turn-off for the S2 and Poznań.

One day, after the next lot of EU funds has been earmarked for specific infrastructure; and those funds have been converted into specific projects; and those projects have been put out to public tender; and the optimum bidder (hopefully the best, no longer the cheapest) has been chosen; and that company finally connects Węzeł W-wa Południe to the next junction to the south... THAT day, dear reader, the lights can be turned on... but that day may well be in eight years' time.

Left: the lightbulbs are all in place. Left to weather eight winters, I doubt many will be in working order when the S79 finally extends southwards.

In the meanwhile, the contractor who completed the S2/S79 (Austrian firm Porr) has installed all the lighting, including the section that will remain unused until the S79 is finally extended southwards.


In total, there must be hundreds of lamps, bulbs and standards, all in rust-free, pristine condition - except there's no need to switch them on for many years. This includes the ones lighting the carriageway from the S2 to the S79 (south); from south of the point where the slip-road from the S79 to the S2 swings off westward (both carriageways); and from the end of the contract along the slip-road onto the S2 (east). All delivered in perfect working order. But will they be in perfect working order when they are actually needed? At the very least, the bulbs should all be taken out and safely stored until that day.

Who insisted that all this work be done now? What were they thinking?

S2-S79 opens - partially

As of Thursday night, motorists driving eastwards along the newly-opened S2 expressway can proceed a further 5km from Al. Krakowska to Węzeł (junction) Warszawa Południe (Warsaw South), and thence make a 90 degree turn northward, to join the S79 which will take them to Mokotów.

The final 2km-long section of the S2, connecting Węzeł W-wa Poludnie to ul. Puławska, is still unfinished, though this stretch is expected to be ready by the end of this month.

The S2, looking east towards Węzeł W-wa Południe, from Złote Łany bridge.

I must confess to being positively surprised by the sudden spurt of activity. What I saw on my bicycle journey along the S2 and S79 on 11 August offered little hope that the new expressways would be opened sooner than November. In particular the huge canyon that was the Kanał Załuski crossing under the S2 seemed to require months of work to complete - and now here it is, ready, with traffic flowing smoothly over it.

So then. Two cheers. When the S2 reaches Puławska (15 months late), it will stop there; and judging by the poor pace of infrastructure development, I'd be surprised if Warsaw's Southern By-Pass (Południowa Obwodnica Warszawy) actually becomes that - a ring-road allowing east-west transit traffic to skirt the city entirely - much before 2020.

The whole S2-S79 development that I've followed on this blog since January 2009 leaves Warsaw with three stumps going nowhere; the S79 at the southern end (terminating abruptly in a muddy field in Dawidy), the S79 at the northern end (terminating abruptly in front of an office development) and the S2 at the eastern end (terminating abruptly in bushes round the back of a shopping centre car park). As of now, there are no planned dates for commencement of work to drive these roads to their intended destinations.

Today's Gazeta Stoleczna has dedicated a whole page to the absurdities that surround the S2-S79 investment, the unfinished stumps, the 650m-long footbridge on ul. Marynarska to a bus stop that won't be functioning for years, the junction on ul. Wirażowa with traffic lights, zebra crossing, road markings... but no road running off from it. And at the other end, the badly-positioned sign posts that confuse drivers, the badly-synchronised traffic lights, the ill-thought-through lane markings... the usual aftermath of a newly (partially) completed road. It will all fall eventually in place, but when it comes to delivering transport infrastructure, Poland as a state still has much to learn.

Fingers crossed, then, that in a couple of weeks the citizens of Ursynów will wake up and be able to drive all the way to Poznań, Berlin and Lisbon from ul. Puławska without encountering any traffic lights.

This time last year:
Warsaw's second Metro line - progress in jeopardy
[a year on it's still years from completion]

This time three years ago:
Let no one send us to Kielce!

This time five years ago:
World's largest helicopter over Jeziorki

The end of the S2 takes shape

Last week as I mentioned the first, seven kilometre-long section of the S2 from Konotopa to Al. Krakowska opened to traffic, 14 months after the original deadline. Today, I cycled along the final stretch of the S2, from Węzeł W-wa Południe (originally known as Węzeł Lotnisko), to the end, beyond Węzeł Puławska. This being the stump of the S2 protruding east of ul. Puławska, a stump awaiting a further push onwards under Ursynów to the Vistula, over it via a new river crossing, then onwards via the Mińsk Maz bypass as the A2 to the Belorusian border. This (we presume) will be built at a similar tempo and to a similar quality to the rest of the S2.

Although the sky was bruising and clouds threatened another downpour, there were plenty of cyclists out along the S2, still a couple of months (at least) ahead of its official opening. Below: looking east towards Puławska, in the foreground a roadsign misleadingly directing drivers straight on to Terespol and the border (wait at least six years for this), or turn right to Sandometer (Sandomierz). A daft destination to put on a roadsign. 'Piaseczno and the South', it should read. Sand City's bigger and much nearer than Sandometer.

Below: the S2 crosses Puławska on the viaduct to the right of this pic (which is looking west this time). To the left, the embankment carrying the Warsaw Metro link line. But what's this? To my huge surprise, a bus stop. This rather suggests that ZTM is planning to run buses along the S2?

Below: is this a hair-pin bend on the Monaco Grand Prix circuit? No, this is the end of the S2. From the left: traffic coming up from Puławska will be merging with traffic from Poznań and Berlin (coming down the second lane from left) while the former traffic heads for Poznań and Berlin (up the third lane from left) and the latter crosses the former, heading for Warsaw (up the fourth lane from left).

Traffic lights will be installed here, which at least will cut down on serious accidents as two heavy streams of traffic merge, but I predict traffic jams stretching back to the airport at peak times. Below: a road-engineer's plan of how things will work east of Puławska. Click to enlarge. If you live south of here, this is how you'll be getting onto the S2 once it opens...

The M25, along which I travelled early last week, is a good object lesson for Warsaw. London's ring-road may be five or even six lanes in each direction - but can be thoroughly clogged. Imagine - six lanes of traffic stationary in each direction - that's what Eddie and I experienced last Monday week heading anti-clockwise between the M40 and M3. And the S2, Warsaw's southern by-pass, is just two lanes in each direction.

How much longer before the S2 opens finally? End of September I doubt, but by mid-autumn, before the first snows, is, I think, doable.

This time last year:

A day in Jewish Kraków

This time three years ago:
Dismal graffiti yields to street art, W-wa Żwirki i Wigury
[Photos for the record only; they were sprayed over by the mindless spray-can morons weeks later]

This time four years ago:
A dove in the house

This time five years ago:
Coming in to land from the east

Much still left to do before S2-S79 opens

Bank holiday, and rain... a good opportunity to check progress along the S2/S79 (the 'Elka') which one day will link southern Warsaw to the outside world. But - from what I saw - not for some time yet. A few weeks ago, an article in Gazeta Stołeczna suggested that the S2 will connect ul. Puławska with the A2, the motorway to Berlin, in September. In other words, 15 months after the original date for completion, June 2012. And three months after the previous promised opening date (June 2013).

Looking at how much there's still to do, and how fast the work has progressed so far, I'd rather bet on a late-November ribbon-cutting ceremony. If this project had been a public-private partnership, it would have opened last June. UK experience on PPPs shows that nearly 90% of projects are completed on time - because the private sector operator doesn't earn dime one until the infrastructure is made available to the public. From the road user's point of view, a toll-road is a toll-road; whether one's money goes to a public-sector operator (behind schedule and over budget) or to a private sector one (UK experience is that they complete on time and within budget) is not an issue. What is an issue is the ability to deliver. Poland's infrastructure is delivered in an exceedingly slow way.

Remember that good infrastructure builds rich nations, and that new roads boost local GDP, creating new job opportunities (for example, unemployment in Stryków, north of Łódź, fell from 13% to just 5%, when the A1/A2 motorways finally met there last year).

So - how's the S79 looking? Below: looking north from Węzeł Lotnisko towards the city centre. That's Warsaw Trade Tower on the horizon. Crash barriers are in place, but the final layers of asphalt are still needed. Lighting stanchions are low over the road surface as this is right under the flightpath for the runway at Okęcie airport.

Below: the S2 - Warsaw's southern bypass, and part of the Berlin-Moscow motorway, crossing under the S79 and the Warsaw-Radom railway line. Still much to do here, to fill the so-called wanna ('bath') and lay the tarmac. Connecting this bit of road to ul. Puławska, 2km to the east, will take many months.

Below: "Can we get to Puławska from here?" asks the cyclist on the left. "Not on a bike" is my answer. The slip-roads aren't ready, there are too many muddy or water-filled sections. It's hard going for a man in wellies. I purposely came here on foot knowing that it's still impassable to bicycles.

Below: looking east towards Puławska. The first viaduct carries the slip road linking the S79 northbound (currently a slip road from nowhere - see beneath) with the S2 westbound. The second viaducts carry the Warsaw-Radom main railway line and the Okęcie-Siekierki coal line. The third viaduct, just about visible, carries the line connecting Warsaw's Metro to the outside rail network.

Below: the S79 crossing over the S2, looking west. Note how much water is on the ground. We've had a few wet days, but nothing cataclysmic. Pumps are working in the underpass to remove surplus water.

Below: steps for maintenance workers leading from the S2 up to the S79 crossing over it. Work here is nearly ready; just a few more barriers to erect.

Below: looking north along the S79, from the southern end of the contract. The road stops suddenly here. To the left, the slip-road from the S2, for traffic coming in from the west. A road to nowhere. To the right, the slip-road to join the S2 - a road from nowhere.

Below: I turn around 180 degrees from where I took the above photo. In the distance - ul. Baletowa. One day, the S79 will continue from where it left off; it will cross Baletowa and head south through Dawidy, Zamienie, Zgorzała, Lesznowola and eventually connect up with the S7, helping to relieve congestion around Janki. But I guess this will all happen sometime after the EU's 2014-2020 budget money has to be spent by -  2022? Until then, the above stump of expressway will stand as a monument to Bad Planning.

A similar situation exists east of Puławska. Warsaw's southern bypass will, for the time being, end there. No tunnel under Ursynów, no new bridge to carry the S2 across the Vistula, no connection to the A2 Minsk Mazowiecki bypass, no A2 onwards to the Belarusian frontier. Not until 2022.

Poland deserves better infrastructure. The blame can be laid at the feet of successive governments since 1990 who failed to understand the influence that good infrastructure has on a nation's economy.

Above: a rare moonlit shot from Google Earth - the latest image available, dated 20 November 2012, clearly showing Węzeł Lotnisko and the abrupt end of the S79 in a muddy field.

This time last year:
Looking at progress along the S79 (how little has been achieved!)

This time two years ago:
Snow on 3 May

This time three years ago:
Two Polands

This time four years ago:
A delightful weekend in the country

This time five years ago:
The dismantling of the Rampa

This time six years ago:
Flag day