"Save wetlands" Association  
 

A2 motorway in the Mazovian Landscape Park

Description of options:

Two projects are being considered by the General Management of the State Roads and Highways:

  • northern option ( incorporating the Toruńska Route and opening a possibility of building the NS Route)
  • southern option with its three variants all of which cut through the Mazovian Landscape Park:
    1. Ursynów variant
    2. Józefosław variant, which assumes that the A2 will run south of the Kabaty Forest and intersect the northern part of the Mazovian Landscape Park at Miedzeszyn
    3. local government variant, where the A2 passes through Góra Kalwaria and the Całowanie Peatland. It has been proposed by the Piaseczno and Skierniewice county governments and has been taken into account only recently when the protests against the Ursynów variant intensified.
The decision on the overall route of the A2 will determine where the west-of-Warsaw junction is located. There are three possibilities:
  1. at Stryków near Łódź - then the motorway will pass near Skierniewice and Góra Kalwaria
  2. at Brwinów, which can only match the Józefosław variant
  3. at Konotopa , north-west of Pruszków, which can be used in variants a) and b)
The Ursynów variant has existed in official plans for 22 years and is the most logical as far as traffic regulation on the A2 is concerned. It is predicted that till 2020 the motorway's main function will be to direct motor traffic to Warsaw and take it back from there. Transit to the east will be taking place on a negligible scale only. Additionally, the motorway running this way may become a part of a small Warsaw bypass, which would improve traffic conditions in the capital.
However, this variant is strongly opposed by the inhabitants of Ursynów. Tentative plans of directing the motorway through a tunnel at Ursynów have been made. It would limit the number of adverse effects caused by the investment. Unfortunately, it is not certain if the tunnel will be built, since its construction will increase the costs 2,5 times. Besides, this route of the motorway will destroy the Warsaw Enscarpment with its great natural and landscape values.

The Józefosław variant causes less vigorous protests and is as logical as the one described above in respect of the traffic type planned for the motorway. It is , however, far more expensive (on condition that the tunnel through Ursynów is not built), because it also passes through the urban area and is a lot longer. Another drawback is its location - the road may block the passage of fresh air supplied for the southern part of Warsaw from the Chojnów Landscape Park and the migration corridor for animals living in the southern part of Warsaw. Problems may also occur in connection with the substratum and unfavourable hydrological conditions.

The local government variant is theoretically cheaper than the others, because it does not go through built-up urban areas and the county governments of Skierniewice and Góra Kalwaria have a positive attitude towards it. Another argument in favour is that it would correspond to the vision of developing Warsaw into a metropoly within the triangle Warsaw - Radom - Łódź with a new airport near Nowe-Miasto-nad-Pilicą (Professor J. Damiecki's idea).
This location raises protests of people living in Tarczyn and Prażmów districts. The authors of this concept forget that for some years the motorway is supposed to bring traffic to Warsaw rather than by transit past Warsaw. Building the motorway in this place will cause all the southern gateways to the capital (from Janki and Piaseczno) to be completely jammed. Moreover, it may destroy the most valuable areas in the Mazovian Landscape Park, especially the Całowanie Peatland. Therefore, it is definitely not a nature-friendly option, as its proponents claim.

The environmental impact of motorways

The construction of a motorway brings a lot of negative consequences from the very beginning. Noise, construction machines exhausts, badly located and secured places where materials and equipment are kept, can to a considerable degree, damage the surrounding area. Drainage and the construction of an embankment cause an irreversible change of hydrogeological conditions on an area several hundred bigger than the one occupied by the motorway itself.
When the road is already in use, the amount of such harmful substances as sulphur and nitrogen oxides, lead, cadmium, carbohydrates, etc. released into the atmosphere grows significantly. The level of dust can rise above the safety limit. Both these factors pose a threat to human health. Water running off the tarmac straight into ditches carries with it different pollutants accumulating there, for example, detergents and various kinds of oil, which often leak out of cars. All this later seeps into the ground. It necessitates the building of an effective system collecting the run-off for treatment in a purification plant.
The infrastructure accompanying motorways: petrol stations, car parks, motels, makes the adversely affected area even larger. Increased littering, higher anthropopression near motels, leakages from petrol and car-wash stations are just some of the dangers. All this leads to the irreversible disappearance of habitats and progressive degradation of landscape.
Another problem is noise, which can disturb both people living nearby and wildlife inhabiting the area. Noise screens are of considerable help ,but do not eliminate constant violations of the permitted level of noise. It is particularly harmful for many species of skittish animals, notably amphibians and birds. Similarly, intensified vibrations can damage buildings standing close to the road and disturb the communication of underground and water animals.
One should also remember about accidents of vehicles transporting hazardous and toxic substances. In such cases not only the areas immediately adjacent to the motorway but also nearby villages, towns and their water intakes are endangered.
A motorway running through protected areas blocks migration routes of animals, which means there are more accidents with animals. To reduce the risk, it is necessary to build tunnel passes for them or erect the motorway on pillars in places where there are traditional migration routes. Unfortunately, such a solution too has negative consequences: as shown by the research done in Germany and France, such passes are hunting posts for predators wanting to catch easy prey.
Large permanent constructions, including motorways cause the fragmentation of plant and animal populations. Isolating the sites they occur in leads to the extinction of many rare species and those that are characterised by the high changeability of population numbers.
Another threat motorways pose is helping alien species which can easily spread along them. It often causes local rarities to die out since they are more demanding than the newcomers or cannot compete with the species that have no natural enemies.
All the above-mentioned threats should incline decision-makers never to let them cut through protected areas. However, taking into consideration our Polish reality, we ought to at least fight for mitigating their impact on the environment through the suitable location and taking all possible precautions.

Assessment of the options

The "Save Wetlands" Association takes a firm stand against building the A2 through the Mazovian Landscape Park. It is important to stress once again that the so-called local government variant does not bypass areas of high natural value. Conversely, such a route would threaten extremely precious ecosystems of the Całowanie Peatland with adjacent alder swamp forests. This area has been proposed to the NATURA 2000 network, which includes areas particularly valuable for Europe and intends to preserve different animal and plant habitats. Changing hydrological conditions and the fragmentation of the Całowanie Peatland would greatly reduce its biodiversity.
It is worth remembering that, contrary to the information spread by supporters of the local government variant, not all inhabitants are in favour of the motorway - it refers especially to those living in the Tarczyn and Prażmów districts.
In our opinion, the motorway should intersect the northern already quite transformed part of the Mazovian Landscape Park. High anthropopression connected with the proximity of Warsaw has led to the loss of most of this place's natural values. That is why, choosing lesser evil we should struggle for selecting the northern part of the park as the place the A2 could cut through.
An additional argument in favour of this route is the possibility of taking traffic into and out of Warsaw. In contrast, the local government variant will only aggravate the problem of traffic congestion in the southern part of Warsaw ( already all road exits towards Konstancin or Piaseczno are often jammed).



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