The A1 grows, while Rospuda proves costly

The A1 motorway will eventually connect Poland's Tri-city in the north with the Czech border in the southwest. The existing motorway makes up just about 110 km of the 568 km planned. Part of this connects Tri-city in the north with Grudziądz, in Kujawsko-Pomorskie voivodship, while another fragment operates south of Łódź, close to Piotrków Trybunalski.

The total value of the contract is zł.1.5 billion. According to company statements, the value of orders at Budimex Dromex, which has a 90 percent share in the tender-winning consortium, now amounts to zł.4.5 billion following the A1 deal. The firm hopes to expand its order portfolio to zł.5 billion by the end of this year.

Meanwhile, a court in Białystok has ruled that GDDKiA must pay zł.43.9 million plus interest for breaching a contract with Budimex Dromex for the construction of a ring road in Augustów.

The road was to pass through Rospuda Valley, a environmentally sensitive area in northeast Poland. The plans for the construction were changed to avoid damaging the valley's ecosystem following domestic and international protests by environmentalists.
"We will appeal this decision until we have exhausted the judicial route," GDDKiA spokesperson, Andrzej Maciejewski, told Gazeta Wyborcza. "In our view, the broken contract was not through a fault of ours, but because of public interest," he added.

The contract for the construction of a 17-km stretch of road through the valley was signed with Budimex Dromex in 2007. The value of the contract was just under zł.500 million, zł.92 million of which had been paid before work was halted.

The road is meant to be part of the Via Baltica which runs between Prague, Czech Republic and Tallinn, Estonia.

Marcin Poznań,
Roberto Galea