As GDDKiA reports: – We have received permission to use the former DK18 section upgraded to motorway parameters. The section begins fifty metres behind the Olszyna interchange and ends approximately two kilometres behind the Żary Zachód interchange. This is 11 km of comfortable motorway built using asphalt technology.
The road manager adds:
Both carriageways in their full configuration will be gradually opened to drivers as work progresses on removing temporary traffic-management arrangements. The entire operation will take approximately two weeks. Switching the traffic will also make it possible to complete work on the initial section of the route, nearly 600 metres long, from the border bridge to the Olszyna interchange. Construction work on the remaining sections will be completed this year.
The reconstruction of the southern carriageway of DK18, along the 70 km section between Olszyna and Golnice towards Wrocław, is the second stage of work to adapt this road to motorway parameters. The first stage was the construction of the northern carriageway of DK18 to motorway standards, towards the state border at Olszyna, in 2004–2007. The decision authorizing the implementation of the road investment (ZRID) for the southern carriageway of the future A18 was issued as early as 2011. However, it was only the infrastructure minister’s decision of August 2018 that secured funding and enabled the investment to be carried out במסגרת the Government Programme for the Construction of National Roads 2030.
General Directorate for National Roads and Motorways:
The old National Road No. 18, now its southern carriageway, was built by the Germans in the 1930s. It formed part of the Berlin–Wrocław motorway. This is the carriageway now being modernized.
Scope of work
This is the only section being carried out under the Design and Build formula. On 24 April 2020, a contract was signed for its design and reconstruction. The entire section is 11 km long. The value of the works contract is PLN 138.5 million.
The road manager clarifies:
The contractors’ main task was to fully adapt the existing road system to motorway parameters. The work mainly involved replacing the degraded surface of the southern carriageway and adapting the road’s load-bearing capacity to carry loads of 11.5 tonnes per axle. The old surface was removed and used to construct the base course beneath the new surface. The carriageway was widened from 9.5 to 11 metres. As part of the project, the Żary Zachód road interchange—at the intersection with National Road No. 12—was reconstructed, one wildlife overpass and four viaducts along the motorway were built.
When will the remaining sections be ready?
Road builders:
Construction work is still underway on the three remaining sections, with a combined length of nearly 38 km:
- Iłowa–the border between Lubusz and Lower Silesian Voivodeships (16.2 km)
- the border between Lubusz and Lower Silesian Voivodeships–Golnice (21.5 km).
All sections are to be completed this year.