On Monday, we will put into operation a part of the S7 expressway, thanks to which Warsaw and Krakow will be directly connected, the National Directorate of Roads and Highways (GDDKiA) informs. The trip between the cities is expected to take about 2.5 hours, which is about half the time of the old national route “7” through Radom and Kelce.
The section of the S7 motorway between Widoma and Kraków and the northern Krakow bypass along the S52 road will be opened on Monday. According to Kacper Micna from the Krakow branch of the GDDKiA, the total length of roads accessed on Monday is 25 km. – They greatly strengthen the transportation base of the region, – noted the representative of GDDKiA.
The completion of 13.3 km of the S7 route between Widoma junction and the Mistrzejewice crossing in Nowa Huta will allow connecting the two largest Polish cities – Warsaw and Krakow – by highways. At the Mistrzejewice junction, the S7 road connects with the Krakow North Ring Road along the S52 road.
In 2.5 hours to the capital
The section between Widoma and Kraków was the last part of the S7 that was built north of Kraków in Lesser Poland. After its completion, a modern highway will connect the two cities for a distance of 270 kilometers. In the Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the road runs along a completely new route, which departs from the Krakow route, which was marked at the beginning of the 19th century.
Section S7 Widoma-KrakówGDDKiA
According to GDDKiA estimates, the S7 journey between Warsaw's southern roundabout and Krakow's northern roundabout will now take around 2.5 hours, almost half as long as when the old DK7 operated from Radom and Kielce.
As Michna noted, the construction of this road has not yet been completed, as some elements need to be completed on this route, including: works on nodes and fences. Therefore, the speed limit will be 80 km/h.
– However, we make both highways accessible to drivers throughout the section, each of which has two traffic lanes and traffic is limited at three intersections. We intend to complete the work of this section at the end of spring, informed the representative of GDDKiA.
highway S7
Route S7 is a dual carriageway with two lanes in each direction and a reserve for a possible third lane. Investments worth around PLN 1.7 billion PLN 534.8 million came from EU funding under the Infrastructure and Environment Operational Program and PLN 420.7 million under the European Infrastructure, Climate and Environment Fund. Its contractor was the consortium Gulermak (leader), Gűlermak Agir Sanayi Inşaat ve Taahhűt and Mosti Lodz.
The connection between the S7 and the S52 will be provided by a temporary slip road, which will serve traffic in both directions until the works are completed at the Mystrzejewice intersection. The Lucis Pass will be closed by mid-2025, and work is still ongoing. Until the completion of the Masterejovice junction, the Raciborowice junction will operate to a limited extent – it cannot be entered from the Krakow side or exited from the city side. Mistrzejewice crossing should be fully completed in mid-2026 – it will be the largest road intersection in Malopolska, after its construction the ring around Krakow will be closed.
Krakow Road
In turn, the completion of the 12.3 km Northern Krakow Ring Road (POK) along the S52 highway means that the capital of Malopolska will soon be the second Polish city after Łódź to be surrounded by a complete ring road. Until now, the Krakow crossing was 52.2 km long, after the opening of 12.3 km POK, it will be 64.5 km long.
– We still need 5 kilometers of S7 between the junction of Mistrzejewice and the point of Nova Huta, which we plan to complete in the middle of 2026, Michna said.
The POK, which opens on Monday, runs through the city along the northern borders of Krakow, as well as through the communes of Wielka Wies and Zielonki. It will have three lanes in each direction, but the speed limit will be 100 km/h. The road manager introduced them for safety reasons, because due to the limited terrain, the route does not have the parameters to drive at high speed.
In the tunnels due to their nature (even in the tunnel in Zielonki, near the junction of Batowice in the object of Dziekanowice) speed limit of 80 km/h is introduced. According to GDDKiA, S52 is the only bypass road in Poland that has two tunnels – Zielonki (653 m) and Dziekanowice (496 m).
The ring road is connected to other roads by three new crossings: Zielonki (with Trasa Wolbromska), Vegrce (with Al. 29 Listopada) and Batowice (with Os. Piastow and Batowice). 20 kilometers of new access roads were also built, which makes it possible to easily travel from Krakow and the surrounding cities. There were 27 bridges, crossings and overpasses on this route, the total length of which was almost 1.9 kilometers.
The cost of the work is approximately PLN 1.4 billion, of which PLN 789.6 million was EU funding from the Infrastructure and Environment Operational Programme. The section was built by the consortium Gulermak (leader), Gulermak Agir Sanayi Inshaat va Tahahhut and Mosti Łódź.
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