S7 expressway - progress check

Decided to make the most of yesterday’s first whiff of spring in March (in late February temperature topped over +18C twice, more on this in the annual Winter timeline, due in a fortnight), lugged my bike out of the basement, donned a thin face mask, a helmet and rode to inspect the progress on nearby S7 expressway construction site. Cycling note – this year instead of having my bike serviced at Decathlon, I did the brake adjustments, screwdriving, tyre change and chain lubricating and other stuff on my own. It spared me some 100 zlotys, saved not for a rainy day, but for time more conducive to living it up.

Having cycled through Las Kabacki, crossed ul. Puławska and cut across the cemetery in Pyry I find myself by ul. Baletowa. Here the road has been routed into a tunnel, wide enough to fit two lanes and pavements on both sides. It is around 11:00 a.m., traffic quite sparse so far.

On the western side of the tunnel, looking north towards Warszawa Południe junction (lamp posts in the distance are at the end of the finished, yet closed section of the expressway). Except for the excavator and the truck, no machinery nor workers on site. Feel kind of sorry for dwellers of nearby houses who have lived here for decades and soon they will need to put up with the neighbourhood of a noisy and fume-producing fast traffic.

Then I cycle south through Dawidy Bankowe. A shot taken from a bus stop by ul. Starzyńskiego, looking east towards the railway tracks. The sandy bottom layer of the expressway’s foundation is well visible. Watch out for the spot which has blotted all zoomed pictures taken with my 2012 compact Olympus camera since early 2018. I have got used to that mark, the bigger the higher optical zoom I set.

Down in Zgorzała, standing by ul. Dawidowska, looking north. The viaduct in the distance seems to be a part of the Zamienie junction, currently having no link to the existing road infrastructure.

Standing nearly in the same spot, looking south. The pylons suggest ul. Dawidowska will run beneath the expressway in a tunnel. For no apparent reason, this venue does not exhibit a high progress of works.

Still in Zgorzała, looking west towards housing estates in Zamienie whose dwellers will also find the expressway audible (despite noise barriers, humming can be heard within half a mile from a fast-traffic carriageway).

The viaduct marked on the map of the project as WD-4 is now in the middle of a field, but it is bound to link ul. Raszyńska in Zamienie with ul. Postępu in Zgorzała (i.e. the place from which the snap was taken).

On to Nowa Wola where ul. Krasickiego also has been put into a tunnel. If you zoom in, you should see lighting installed inside it. Inside the tunnel actually everything seems to be nearly ready, while outside there is no point in doing any finishing works, as construction machines would spoil the effects of tidying up.

I was quite astonished to behold two flyovers built over ul. Postępu in Nowa Wola. As it turns out, they are a part of a bigger junction connecting the designed DW721 and S7. The viaduct will carry slip roads – the north will take westbound traffic from Piaseczno to Warsaw, the south one will take all northbound traffic from S7 towards both Piaseczno and Lesznowola.

The last shot comes from ul. Słoneczna in Kolonia Lesznowola, where the current DW721 runs into the tunnel. All 3 tunnels I photographed are quite similar. Less than a mile south from here the section A has its end. Further works are not carried out after the National Road Authority has terminated agreement with the general contractor of section B. If the section A is completed within the deadline, first drivers should be able to get from Warszawa Południe junction to Lesznowola, and no further, in November 2022.

Cycled home through Piaseczno. Traffic was quite dense given several types of shops are shut down since today. Then through Las Kabacki again. As I approach home, I run across a scene customary on ul. Moczydłowska on Saturdays and Sundays – a Straż Miejska patrol putting wheel blockers to drivers who illegally parked their cars in a residential zone. I am all into this. Feel like strolling into the forest – take a longer walk and leave your car (if public transport or bike are not an option) where it is permitted, instead of almost driving into the very woodland!