On Saturday 14th February at 14:35 p.m., the Municipal Police Station of the State Fire Station in Warsaw received a notification about a fire under the Łazienkowski Bridge. After almost 40-hour action continued from two banks of the Vistula river as well as personal watercraft, the capital was able to notice ashes and a pile of burnt boards stored directly under the bridge.
The initial prognoses that the renovation of the road located in the center of Warsaw will last only couple of days turned out to be too optimistic – the time of works including total replacement of the construction will certainly last few or even a dozen or so months. The Varsovians will have to be patient and… prepare additional funds in order to cover losses related to exclusion of the crossing.
According to detailed calculations presented by Gazeta Wyborcza, the price for the passage by personal vehicle from Torwar to Wąchocka Street cost on average 45 gr till Saturday. At present, the route after turning from Łazienkowski Bridge to Wisłostrada, then to Poniatowski Bridge, Wał Miedzeszyński and Stany Zjednoczone Avenue will cost five times as much money. Assuming that some drivers used to travel through Łazienkowski Bridge twice a day, now each of them has to burn the fuel for the price of 3,4 zlotys while getting stuck in the traffic. The bypass will consume not only money but also time – 10 minutes instead of earlier 1 minute of passing the Łazienkowski Bridge with the speed of 50 km/h. It is worth remembering that other drivers who did not pass the Łazienkowski Bridge before will also get stuck in the traffic.
Wyborcza adds that almost 100 000 vehicles used to drive daily through this damaged crossing. The route cost jointly 45 thousand zlotys before the fire and now this amount increased to 340 thousand zlotys! Within one year, each driver who had to travel daily from one bank of the Vistula to another by Łazienkowski Bridge will spend now over 1000 zlotys because of the bypass.
The President of the City informed on a today’s press conference that the old bridge will be not repaired. The whole construction will be replaced instead. It will cost less than a renovation – jointly ca. 100-120 million zlotys.