The new temporary roundabout is intended to make it easier for drivers to get around during the works. A permanent roundabout will instead be built at the intersection of Sikorskiego and Iwaszkiewicza streets.
As Andrzej Szymkowiak, director of the Municipal Roads Authority, explains, this investment will begin with the renovation of the Independence Roundabout (the intersection of Piłsudskiego Avenue and Sikorskiego Street). The road surface will be replaced here, the pavements relaid and an energy-absorbing barrier installed. During these works, one traffic lane, the so-called right-turn lane, will be designated on the roundabout for vehicles to use. Once the works are completed, the Independence Roundabout will reopen and the reconstruction of Sikorskiego Street will begin on the section from the roundabout to the intersection with Iwaszkiewicza Street. All carriageways on Sikorskiego Street will be closed for this period. A detour will be marked via Sudecka Street.
And it is the temporary roundabout at the intersection of Sikorskiego and Sudecka streets that will be crucial to traffic organization, also for safety reasons. It will be built from road-mounted overlays, on which an island made of prefabricated elements will be installed. Vehicles will be able to turn around in one traffic lane, including the longest ones, such as articulated buses. The roundabout will reduce vehicle speeds on Sikorskiego Street.
“We will monitor and analyze traffic at this roundabout,” says Andrzej Szymkowiak. “It is possible that in the future we will build a permanent roundabout here. In the past, serious accidents occurred at this intersection. Roundabouts are intended precisely to eliminate such incidents.”
We will provide details of the traffic organization once the date for the start of the works has been set and, consequently, the date of its implementation.
Let us recall that the tender for the reconstruction of Sikorskiego Street—from the Independence Roundabout to Iwaszkiewicza Street—was won by Berger Bau Polska. The company offered the lowest price, nearly PLN 4.2 million. It declared that it would complete the works by 31 October this year and provide a seven-year warranty.
What will be done? A very important traffic solution will be the construction of a turbo roundabout at the intersection of Sikorskiego and Iwaszkiewicza streets. An additional traffic lane will be created here for vehicles turning right from Sikorskiego Street into Iwaszkiewicza Street. The road, pavement and cycle-path structures will of course also be replaced.
As part of this project, a new bus stop will be built just beyond the intersection of Sikorskiego and Iwaszkiewicza streets, in the direction of Wrocławska Street. Meanwhile, the bus bay on Sikorskiego Street, opposite the church, will undergo a thorough modernization. The stop on Sikorskiego Street before the intersection with Wrocławska Street will be removed.