Documenting the New Motorway, #1: The Bridge

[image error]It’s not every day a major civil engineering project kicks off a five-minute drive from where one lives, so I’ve jumped on the chance to record its progress photographically.  The S2 Expressway is an extension of the main A2 highway that is planned to link Berlin, Warsaw and Moscow.  A couple of years ago, a section south of Warsaw was opened and now, after many years since it was planned (we first heard about it in 2004), the required funds appear to have been found to bring the S2/A2 over the Vistula and through part of our local forest.  This section is slated to be opened in August 2020, and I plan to keep taking and posting pictures as it progresses.

In this first post, I went down to the Vistula to see how the new bridge is coming along.  All of these shots were taken on the east bank of the river.  Here’s the easternmost support for the bridge, with a sandbank to allow the plant to reach it from the bank and work there:

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There are three supports spanning the river.  Here’s the central one, with cormorants and other birdlife singularly unmoved by the changes taking place around them:

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The plant on the eastern bank is like a full-size version of the toys I used to play with as a child:

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This is my favourite machine.  Doubtless it has a proper name, but I’ll just call it the Boring Beastie!

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And here, for probably the first and last time, is a picture of the steel forms which will be buried in, and strengthen, the concrete supports:

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Finally, here’s a shot of all three bridge supports.  In less than three years, there should be a four-lane highway right here:

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