The most anticipated expressway. Drivers will soon be able to travel comfortably.

• Drivers have been waiting for the S1 expressway for many years. The route will relieve the congested National Road No. 1.
• A section of the S1 road on the border of the Lesser Poland and Silesian Voivodeships will be opened to traffic any day now.
• When the entire S1 route is completed, drivers will experience a huge change. "It's the gateway to southern Europe," explains the General Directorate for National Roads and Motorways.

"In the second half of August, a section of the S1 expressway from the Oświęcim junction to the Brzeszcze junction will be opened to traffic, along with a 600-meter section of the DK44, as well as another section of the Oświęcim bypass along the DK44. In total, 4.1 km of new road will be completed from the Oświęcim junction on the S1 to the roundabout on Wojewódzka Street in Pławy," explains the General Directorate for National Roads and Motorways.

An important section of the S1 expressway. A large viaduct and bridge over the Vistula River have been built.

Three road junctions were built on the nearly 16-kilometer section of the S1 Oświęcim-Dankowice expressway : Oświęcim, Wola, and Brzeszcze . As part of the construction of the main roadway, 18 engineering structures were constructed (including five bridges, seven road viaducts, two railway viaducts, a viaduct, two combined underpasses for large and medium-sized animals, and a pedestrian bridge).

Two engineering structures deserve special attention on this section. The first is a 480-meter-long overpass on the roadway toward Bielsko-Biała, which carries the expressway over, among other things, the electrified, double-track railway line No. 93 Trzebinia-Zebrzydowice, a crossing for medium-sized animals, the Tesznowiec Pond area, and the Jawiszowice-Kaniów district road.

- emphasizes GDDKiA.

The viaduct was constructed as a prestressed, 10-span structure with a box cross-section. It was constructed using 20-segment incremental technology. The second structure worth noting is the 224-meter-long road bridge, which carries the expressway above the Vistula River, which is separated by flood embankments and an underpass for large animals. It was constructed using cantilever technology.

Additionally, seven amphibian crossings, six road culverts that function as wildlife crossings, and 17 retention reservoirs were constructed. A total of 21 reservoirs serve as amphibian breeding grounds, five of which are replacement reservoirs.

Any day now, drivers will be able to comfortably travel along the four lanes of the S1 expressway.

The S1 expressway consists of two roadways. Each has two 3.75-meter-wide traffic lanes and 2.5-meter-wide emergency lanes. The roadways are separated by a 12-meter-wide central reservation, which will eventually accommodate third lanes on each roadway.

Until the construction of the adjacent sections of S1, i.e. Oświęcim - Bieruń and Dankowice - Bielsko-Biała Hałcnów and the last part of the Oświęcim bypass along the DK44, is completed, the newly opened route will be temporarily available only to vehicles with a permissible total weight of up to 3.5 tonnes.

- explain the road workers.

This is due to traffic management on DK44 in Oświęcim. Drivers leaving the city, Brzezinka, and Pławy will reach the S1 via the roundabout on Wojewódzka Street in Pławy. Driving from the S1, on the other hand, will exit the expressway at the Oświęcim junction and reach the roundabout on Wolska Street, from where they can turn right to Wola or left to Jedlina. It will not be possible to travel straight across the bridge over the Vistula River towards Oświęcim. This solution was developed in cooperation with local governments due to road repairs being carried out by the Oświęcim district authorities. The local road system cannot accommodate the number of cars that could potentially exit the S1 route if access to the city were made available.

The General Directorate for National Roads and Motorways (GDDKiA) has divided the construction of the missing section of the S1 expressway from Mysłowice to Bielsko-Biała, with a total length of nearly 40 km , into four sections. The value of contracts for this route, which aims to improve accessibility in southern Poland and facilitate north-south transit, is nearly PLN 2.3 billion.

Ten of the nearly 16 km long Oświęcim-Dankowice section, from the Oświęcim junction to the Brzeszcze junction, will open in the second half of August. The remaining section, along with two adjacent sections, will open by the end of 2025. The first is Dankowice-Bielsko-Biała Hałcnów , which connects to the existing S1 expressway towards the Slovakian border. The second is Bieruń-Oświęcim, including the Bieruń bypass , where road crews plan to open the road to traffic and connect it to the DK44 (with full completion expected in the third quarter of 2026).

In turn, work on the last of the four sections of the S1, Mysłowice-Bieruń, is scheduled to be completed in mid-2027. At that time, the entire S1 route from Mysłowice to Bielsko-Biała will be available.

- announces GDDKiA.

The construction of the S1 expressway from Oświęcim to Dankowice is co-financed by the European Funds for Infrastructure, Climate, Environment 2021-2027 Programme. The total value of EU funding is over PLN 1 billion.

As road engineers explain, the S1 route is located on the Trans-European Transport Network corridor, connecting the Baltic Sea basin with Southern Europe. It connects the A1 motorway in Pyrzowice with the Slovak border in Zwardoń. The Slovak D3 motorway between Žilina and Skalité extends the S1 expressway south of Poland.

This route is the door to southern Europe

- explains GDDKiA.

Currently, the DK1 and S1 routes between the A1 motorway in Pyrzowice and the border with Slovakia in Zwardoń are 148 km long and are managed by three different managers. The General Directorate for National Roads and Motorways (GDDKiA) is responsible for approximately 141 km of this route, with the remaining portion being managed by the mayors of Tychy and Bielsko-Biała. Part of this route is a main expressway and partly an expressway. Ultimately, after all investments are completed, this road will be an expressway over 133 km long and managed entirely by the GDDKiA.