Some Polish roads ready for tournament

The five sections of the A2 motorway between Strykow and Konotopa in Poland will be open to traffic during the Euro 2012 football tournament.

Poland's transport minister, Slawomir Nowak, has said that although the five sections of the route are currently at different stages of progress, the contractors responsible for them believe that they will manage to complete the road on time.

The Minister also said that work on parts of the A1 and A4 motorways are unlikely to be completed on time. These are the Torun to Strykow section of the A1 and the Krakow to Rzeszow stretch of the A4.

On the A2, the Strykow to Konotopa stretch is particularly important, as it will ensure motorists motorway access from the German border right up to Warsaw.

The A2 motorway is part of the international E30 road running from Cork in Ireland up to Omsk in Russia.

In Poland, the road will begin at the border crossing at Swiecko, passing Poznan, Lodz, Warsaw and Siedlce, before crossing the border at Kukuryki. It will be approximately 660km in length. At present, 252km of this road already exists and is in service -between Nowy Tomysl in the Wielkopolska region and Strykow in the Lodzkie region.

The A2 ran into difficulties earlier this year when an original contract with Chinese contractor China Overseas Engineering Group (COVEC) was cancelled, when COVEC apparently stopped payment to subcontractors. This led to calls from the European Construction Industry Federation (FIEC) and the European International Contractors (EIC) group for measures to level the playing field for contractors facing competition from state-owned enterprises. Contracts were later re-awarded to European contractors.