Poland will not finish two key roads in time
Reuters - Thursday 09 February 2012, 13:04
Poland will not complete its
north-south highway or another road linking its borders with
Germany and Ukraine in time for this year's European
Championships, a minister said on Thursday.
Poland, struggling with an antiquated road network for
years, has started a large-scale infrastructure building
programme ahead of the tournament but the two key highways, A1
and A4, are running behind schedule.
"It gives me no satisfaction to say that we will most likely
not be able to drive through the entire A1 and A4 highway for
the Euros, as some stretches won't be ready," Poland's Transport
Minister Slawomir Nowak told a news confence.
That means Poland will not have a motorway connection to
Ukraine for the June-July event it is co-hosting with its Slavic
neighbour, the first time either country will have staged the
tournament.
"We are doing everything to ensure A2 highway is all done
from the German border to Warsaw," Nowak added.
In November Poland opened another 106 kilometres of A2 and
is now racing against time to finish an outstanding 90-kilometre
stretch to reach Warsaw, as promised by Prime Minister Donald
Tusk, himself a keen football fan.
Poland, which has drawn heavily from the European Union's
aid funds to finance its road-building programme, expects a
million tourists to visit during Euro 2012, though some
officials have been less optimistic.