What has been completed?
In February, an average of 220 pieces of equipment (including excavators, bulldozers, dump trucks, cranes and concrete mixer trucks) and approximately 920 people worked on the construction site. The Wrocław branch of the General Directorate for National Roads and Motorways reports:
Despite the winter period, the contractor is carrying out roadworks related, among other things, to excavation in rocky and non-rocky ground.
Work related, among other things, to topsoil removal, tree and shrub clearance, demolition of roads and streets, ground reinforcement and soil replacement has already been completed. As part of the roadworks, approximately 70,000 m3 of excavated material was removed in February, equivalent to digging out 23 Olympic swimming pools.
Since the start of construction, the contractor has already placed almost 1.3 million m3 of embankment material, which would be enough to build 60 percent of the Pyramid of Cheops. So far, the contractor has excavated more than 1.7 million m3 of soil. More than 300,000 tonnes of aggregate for the road’s structural layers have been delivered to the construction site. That would be enough to build two Kościuszko Mounds in Kraków.
Bituminous works are estimated to be approximately 20 percent complete. The contractor is waiting for weather conditions to improve so that work related to placing topsoil on slopes and reinforcing drainage ditches can begin without delay.
As part of specialist works, work was carried out on the construction of stormwater drainage systems and the reconstruction and construction of river drainage ditches. Excavation was completed for 10 of 15 open reservoirs, together with their sealing and reinforcement using a stone riprap. The largest underground reservoir, consisting of six segments and with a total length of 50 m, was transported to the construction site.
During the winter, the contractor also carried out work related to lighting engineering structures, road lighting at interchanges, including cable routes, and the installation of foundations for lighting poles. In addition, the temporary traffic management arrangements introduced so far continue to be maintained on an ongoing basis.
What road is being built there?
The Kamienna Góra–state border in Lubawka section of the S3 expressway, approximately 15.3 km long, will have two lanes in each direction, along with hard shoulders. Three road interchanges will be built as part of this section:
- Kamienna Góra Północ,
- Kamienna Góra Południe,
- Lubawka.
In addition to the reconstruction of the existing road system, networks and associated infrastructure, 17 engineering structures will be built along and over the S3 expressway, as well as 13 wildlife culverts for ecological purposes (crossings for small animals and amphibians).
How much will it cost?
The contractual value of the entire S3 expressway currently being built from Bolków to Lubawka is estimated at almost PLN 2.5 billion.
The incremental launching method involves building a bridge in segments. This method consists of moving the completed bridge structure from the production facility behind the abutment onto successive supports. In one operation, segments approximately 25–30 metres long with a box-girder structure are concreted. Once the concrete has set, the segments are prestressed and, after the formwork is released, moved using a special system of hydraulic jacks on sliding bearings towards the obstacle.
A launching nose, a steel leading tip, is attached to the first element. Its purpose is to extend the launched structure, move onto the bearings located on the pier heads and support the emerging bridge on successive piers. Each completed element is concreted directly onto the preceding element. Once all elements have been completed and the bridge is in its final position, additional cables required to carry the full service load are prestressed.
Building engineering structures using the incremental launching method is a considerable convenience because this technology eliminates the need to construct massive scaffolding. Another advantage is that it limits the area in which construction work is carried out. Work can also be conducted independently of the impact of weather conditions on the individual elements of the structure between the outermost abutments. In addition, construction of a given structure is much more efficient. The incremental launching method makes it possible to build structures over active roads and railway lines without having to close them. The average rate of advancing individual segments was approximately 6 m/h.