All about the money

Developing Poland's motorway system has been a vast, complicated and often frustrating endeavour. Funding construction has been a constant headache and choosing the best way of recouping the money invested
has still to be resolved, now almost ten years since 'The Toll Motorways Act' was passed. Progress however, though somewhat slower than earlier envisaged, is mercifully being made

In an interview on this subject in Eurobuild's May 2002 issue, the 'winiets' system of charging drivers for motorway use was mooted, as an alternative to tolls. This method, which consists of the annual purchase of a windshield-sticker to show that a driver is entitled to use the motorway, was indeed planned for implementation in February this year, but the Sejm ultimately rejected the scheme. As a result, the government is now scouring the earth for other solutions, one of which could be to boost the National Motorway Fund by introducing a tax on the sale of fuel. The strong possibility of a consequent hike in petrol prices, is one that is likely to detain the Sejm in the coming months before it votes on the issue.

'Winiets' binned
The 'winiets' system, according to Marek Rolla, Director of the General Directorate for National Roads and Motorways for Transport Study, is now "dead" and only stands a chance of being revived "after many years". As for the toll system, now considered with markedly less enthusiasm than some years ago, (the 1994 Act has been significantly amended), it is already operating along the traditional lines of payment booths on two sections of motorway: one on the A2, (to eventually stretch between Berlin and Warsaw) and the other on the A4 between Kraków and Katowice. It may also be extended on the next section of the A2 to be opened this year, (between Poznań and Września), as in Marek Rolla's words, "the concessionary needs some money back" but is unlikely to be used in the current form after that. On the sections where the manned toll system is up and running, 15,000 vehicles travel along the A4 on average per day and 12-13,000 on the A2, which is "a little above minimum but below optimum", according to Marek Rolla. "The toll system decreases traffic by about ten to fifteen per cent than is normal, though much depends on the price," he says, adding that "we don't expect many kilometres will operate under the toll system, because when the volume of traffic is low, it's not good business."

Corridor opening up
On July 29th, the Polish cabinet announced that the crucial Berlin-Warsaw A2 motorway should be ready for use by 2007. By the end of the current year, two sections between Poznań and Września should have been completed, bringing the total length of finished motorway there to 98 kilometres and in 2004 it is expected that the section from Nowy Tomysl to the German border will be opened. The Konin-Łódź stretch will then be under construction through 2004 to 2005. On whether the rest will reach Warsaw two years later, Marek Rolla says, "many things depend on whether funds will be available, and the problems of preparation and land acquisition also have to be considered." The ultimate corridor that this motorway will eventually extend to, is Berlin-Warsaw-Minsk-Moscow but any moves east beyond the Polish capital, are still very much on the back burner. Marek Rolla estimates that it could be up to twenty years, before the levels of traffic in that direction, are such that further motorway sections become viable.
The prospects for completing this motorway in three to four years' time look brighter this year than they did last, when in the country as a whole only six kilometres were completed; 2003 however should witness a further seventy kilometres being added to the nation's motorway network.

And the money?
Motorway construction in Poland has so far been funded in two ways: via the B-O-T, (Build Operate Transfer) approach whereby a private company or consortium invests in a public infrastructure project with finance secured by itself, (with the agreement of the government), then runs and manages the road for a concessionary period of perhaps twenty years, all the while recovering its outlay through tolls until it transfers ownership to the state. The other, directed by the government, involves using both the budget and a wide range of funds and loans from sources such as, in Poland's case, the World Bank, the EIB, the Cohesion Fund and EU pre-accession funds, including Phare and ISPA. Though all these may well have lessened the impact motorway construction has had on the state's coffers, its demands on them have very much remained tangible as Marek Rolla explains:
"With Poland joining the EU there are a lot of funds available, but there is always a need when you receive money from foreign sources to add your own input and the problem is finding this from our budget, which is very limited. From this we have to fund not only the motorways but other roads as well - there are 18,000 kilometres of national roads here. Poland is unfortunately quite a big country. We also need to reinforce roads to European standards [to cope with up to 11.5 tonnes]."
That's one response to the oft-repeated criticism that Poland's motorways are trailing through the land no faster than a tailback. Another is that some in Brussels are not privy to Poland's highly specific infrastructure needs.
"Too much is spent on railways in my opinion," says Marek Rolla. "They are very inefficient and only transport a very limited number of goods and passengers. But the EU likes railways a lot because there they have too many very congested motorways. But in Poland the roads are congested because there are too few of them, not too many and some people in the EU don't understand this situation."

The third way
Between the toll dependent B-O-T and the state-invested motorway sections, a middle course is suggested by Public-Private Partnerships, which are commonly employed in Western Europe to avoid both a full risk transfer to the private sector and overburdening the national budget. The amendments to the act of 1994 would seem to open up the possibility of such a more flexible arrangement. But if Marek Rolla's comments are anything to go by, there still could be some time before this route is chosen.
"There is a limited budget and if you allocate this money for Public Private Partnerships, you could create problems for other roads which probably won't be of the same standard as those funded by PPP. There needs to be some balance of standards."