Polish infrastructure

A Skanska Poland and NDI joint venture is currently working on the largest road project in Europe which, once complete, will link Gdansk in the north of Poland with Gorzyczki in the south. The new A1 motorway will be 568 km long and forms part of the Trans-European Transport route connecting Norway with Greece.

The first 100 km was started in 2005 and completed last year and now the second € 750 million, 62 km phase is under construction. "The roads in Poland are in poor condition and very congested so this four-lane highway is extremely important," said Tomasz Jakubik, sales administration manager at Volvo CE in Poland.

"It currently takes at least ten hours to travel from the north to the south of Poland, but the A1 will shorten this to less than six hours," he said.

The scale of the project, which includes the construction of 51 bridges, can be seen in the € 45 million worth of equipment being used. Local Volvo distributor Volvo Maszyny Budowlane Polska has supplied 66 machines including 50 A40E haulers, four EW160C wheeled excavators and three EC360CL crawler excavators. An A35EFS articulated hauler is also on site.

"This is the first time the A35EFS has been used in Poland, so we thought it would be a good time to test it on the country's biggest project," said Mr Tomasz.

The Volvo dealer has set up a workshop on site and has up to six mechanics and a project manager in attendance at all times. "We have six fully equipped service vans, two 4x4 pick-up trucks for rapid response to areas that are inaccessible by van and a well stocked parts container in place to support the Volvo equipment," said Mr Tomasz. "Excellent after sales support is very important for a project like this."