Poland plans 400km of new roads for 2013

photo: wikipedia

Speaking at a press conference on Monday, Lech Witecki, head of the General Directorate for National Roads and Motorways (GDDKiA), said he hoped to invest 18 million zloty (4.39 million euro), working on about 700 km of roads.

Witecki noted that this year, Poland had managed to open about 650 km of new roads, including a 90 km stretch of the A2 motorway linking Warsaw with the German border.

In this regard, about 60 percent of Poland's current road network programme (which is timetabled to be completed in 2015) has been realised.

Since 2008, Poland has increased its road network by about 150 percent.

Meanwhile, Witecki acknowledged that the volatile nature of the construction industry, noting that 8 of the 133 general contractors that GDDKiA signed contracts with went bankrupt.

“Of course, we realize that the problems of general contractors often resulted in problems that were dependent on their subcontractors,” he said.

Witecki stated that some contractors had signed contracts and then done nothing for several months.

However, catching up invariably meant higher costs, and general contractors would then try and renegotiate contracts with GDDKiA, which was not possible, thus often leading to the termination of contracts. (nh)