THE PARTYS OVER... NO MORE EUROS FOR POLAND'S ROADS

Here it comes, sooner than I thought. EU will start squeezing Poland like they squeezed Greece:


warsawvoice - No more money for you, Poland.

Hi! I believe that what has happened to "pigs" countries shall happen in a very near future to Poland. Once EU's funds are stopped, Poland shall be another Spain or Greece. Like in Spain, millions of zl/euros are wasted (empty stadiums and airports, just to give 2 small examples). Since I know Spain (am half Spanish), I can draw a parallel with these 2 countries. Poland so-called "prosperity" (but millions of Poles working abroad, high unemployment, low wages for most, according to Rzeczpospolita, 1/3 of Polish children live in poverty, itd itd....) is only very temporary and purely articifial. The near future is far from bright....

Yes, for sure, for France!!

worry for Poland and also for ......... GB first! ;).

Well, I for one would be happy to see a slowdown in some infrastructure investment. Krakow's new EU-funded station is just a vanity project - huge, empty and monumental. My greatest pleasure every time I arrive at Krakow is the walk from the terminal to Balice International Rail Station - pic below. In the Summer the chickens in the adjoining field provide amusing entertainment, and sometimes in the Winter when the rails haven't broken the 'Balice Express' sometimes gets up to speeds of 20km/h. Actually I love it and wouldn't change it for anything.

I was told they were a bit ashamed of it and wanted to replace it with some steel and glass modern thing. What a horrid idea.

I heard in Greece there are apartment blocks with the heating turned off, because the majority of inhabitants couldn't foot the bill; can you imagine!! this situation in a country that has -30,like........Poland.

The Russian bear to the rescue?

Your picture is lovely; I remember using this "station" once when I acompanied my friends from Britain to their flight back to Liverpool. But to call it "Balice International Rail Station" is a sort of sophisticated and deliberate exaggeration on your part, if it is not a very clever example of your British sarcasm. This "station" is nothing more than a clumsy stop for a shuttle train from Kraków Główny to Kraków's Airport in Balice; no other trains stop there, not even mentioning international ones. The stop is just awful in the rain, so it really should be replaced by something else. Anyway, its present look is clear proof that the EU has not been spending that much in unnecessary funding in Poland as in Spain


, or it even says to the contrary to what our Franco-Spanish friend claims.


That is even not an example of British sarcasm. It is an excuse to remind you of the notorious British bear which had been coming to the rescue of Ireland (you indicate Ireland as a place of residence in your profile) in the past and which effectively held it in its firm grip for several centuries.

Nooooo! It's lovely! Take an umbrella. I think I'll start a campaign to preserve it ....

Great!! Hopefully they start to rebuild their country by their own hands!!

Yea, coz they've done a great job of that over the last 150 years.........oh wait........ :(

Remind me, did Poland exist before 1918? So I guess reappearing on the political map of Europe, after 123 year absence, is not a big thing? Also, being steamrolled by neighboring countries over and over again during the past (at least) 150 years sounds like a breeze to recover from?

Anyway, withdrawal of funds for polish roads is the polish corporations' fault. That's what you get for speculation...

Excellent news.

Grzegorz,what kind of impact do you think this will have on Poland?

Very positive.

stop ******** -we will end up with unfinished motorways - is that what you desire

Yes. It's simply the wrong way of doing things, the faster it fall down, the better.

I'm not a PO fan - but I would like to have finished motorways at least

Remind me how that has anything to do with building roads?

Oh that's easy. How is one supposed to do something in their country (such as building roads) while... the country does not exist? Or is being occupied?

Which one ?

Poland has the most expensive roads in Europe - more expensive than mountainous Germany and Spain - there must be lots of fraud involved

The construction of one kilometer of motorway in Poland ranges from 2 to 20 million dollars - the average cost is 7.8 million dollars. This means that Poland is the highest cost of building highways among all European countries - informs "Life of Warsaw" . For comparison, in the Czech Republic, the cost of building a kilometer highway is 1 to 2 million dollars.

General Directorate of Public Roads argues that the high cost of highway construction arise from the need of additional work that must be done by certain sections of high-speed roads. These include , among others, to secure the route against mining damage . Therefore, the cost of building a 16- kilometer section of the A4 motorway between Chorzów and Sośnica was $ 160 million . However, in Macedonia, 35 - kilometer stretch of highway built in mountainous terrain , between Skopje and Testovem , cost 67 million dollars, which gives 1.9 million dollars per kilometer.

that is almost certainly not true

the skyscrapercity geeks would have pointed this out
they havent

I know, I mean name these companies please :))

Grzegorz,you don't want Poland to be beholden to anyone huh?I can completely understand that sentiment.

we can meanwhile wait for grzegorz to tell us
how poland would build half this stuff
without the money from europe

most of us cannot afford tanks
in order to be safe on old roads

what is not true ismell - that the Polish motorways are the most expensive in Europe or that there is fraud involved

ismellnonsense,I hear you,I'm just saying that I can understand why he would feel that way.

Gumishu,is Poland capable of paying for it herself?I'm only asking.Not trying to take sides.

no it isn't - what is your point? - btw the road projects have to be financed by Poland in half - so it's not free building spree funded by Europe

We wouldn't. The thing is, common sense way of doing things is as follows, If you are poor, don't buy a car, get a better job first, start making money and then you can afford it, EU way of doing things is as follows -> we will cover half of cost of your car, we will set the requirements for the type of car (so it's either German or French made) you may buy and you will get in debt (in our banks) to pay the other half and then pay for the fuel, insurance, repairs etc.

How it works out, you can see in Greece.

the claim that they are the most expensive in europe
ive seen absolutely no evidence of it
and i am a roadgeek

it may be true in individual bits
but you cant compare building for the polish winters vs building in southern spain

actually
the gddkia is well known to be working in the taxpayer interest
the contracts are usually heavily in favour of the country
the irish were burnt by this
as were the chinese

serves them right


you can blame solidarity for that
and the general socialist leanings of poland

the other issue is that people wanted NOW what germany has NOW
so
foolish people i could agree