The General Directorate for National Roads and Motorways, in the presence of Deputy Infrastructure Minister Rafał Weber, signed a contract on 14 November 2019 for the reconstruction of a 22-kilometre section of national road No. 18, sometimes derisively called the “patatajka” or the “road of shame,” to motorway standards. The section is located in Lubusz Voivodeship, beginning near the Żary Zachód interchange and ending before the Iłowa interchange.
Ministry of Infrastructure:
The contract, worth more than PLN 250 million, was signed with a consortium of companies: Przedsiębiorstwo Budowy Dróg i Mostów KOBYLARNIA and MIRBUD.
The contractor will carry out construction works on the southern carriageway of the existing DK18, build the Żary motorway interchange, reconstruct elements of the existing interchange, and construct engineering structures.
The project will include three viaducts, three animal crossings over the motorway, a bridge, and an underpass beneath the motorway.
The 70-kilometre Olszyna–Golnice section of DK18 will be upgraded to road standards with motorway parameters. The project is the second stage of construction of the A18 motorway; the first stage was the construction of the northern carriageway, which has been in use since 2006.
The project has been divided into four construction sections:
- from the state border to km 11.86 – tender ongoing since September 2019.
- from km 11.86 to km 33.76 – contract signed on 14 November 2019.
- from km 33.76 to the border between Lubusz and Lower Silesian Voivodeships – tender planned to begin in 2020.
- the border between Lubusz and Lower Silesian Voivodeships to the Golnice interchange – tender planned to begin in 2020.
National road No. 18 connects the A4 motorway with the border crossing at Olszyna. In Poland, it forms part of the E36/40 trans-European road corridor, which connects Ukraine, Slovakia, and southern Poland with Dresden and Berlin.