Mateusz Morawiecki unveiled the new 17-kilometre section of the S7 road near the capital Warsaw on Friday, public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency reported.
He was accompanied by his Infrastructure Minister Andrzej Adamczyk.
The new stretch of the S7 links the Warsaw suburb of Lesznowola and the town of Tarczyn south of the capital, featuring three interchanges, 11 viaducts and six bridges, among other facilities, officials said.
Friday’s launch means that more than 230 kilometres of the road is now open to traffic, connecting Warsaw with the Małopolskie region in the south and the south-central province of Świętokrzyskie, state news agency PAP reported.
The S7 expressway will ultimately extend 706 kilometres, making it the longest of the Polish roads currently under construction, according to officials.
North-south roads 'crucial for economic development’: PM
At Friday’s opening ceremony, Morawiecki told reporters: “The S7 expressway from Gdańsk in the north to southern Poland is so important, so crucial for fostering new economic prospects.”
He added: “Our aim is to make expressways as accessible to people as possible, but also to ensure that they strategically facilitate the north-south dimension.”
The prime minister noted that Poland was also helping build the Via Carpathia transnational highway network, designed to connect Europe’s north and south, from Lithuania to Greece.
He told reporters: “The Via Carpathia route running through eastern Poland is our pride and joy because it opens up totally new development prospects.”
Morawiecki said the Via Carpathia would help "connect countries lying to the north of Poland, such as Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, as well as Finland and other Nordic countries, with southern Europe, through Slovakia, Hungary and Romania, all the way to Bulgaria and Greece.”
He stated: “This additional economic dimension will lead to the creation of hundreds of thousands of new jobs in the future.”
(pm/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP, wgospodarce.pl