Expressway S8 or express road S8, officially named The Route of the Heroes of the Battle of Warsaw 1920 ( pl. ''droga ekspresowa S8'', ''Trasa Bohaterów Bitwy Warszawskiej 1920 r.'') is a Polish highway which connects

Wrocław Wrocław is a city in southwestern Poland, and the capital of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship. It is the largest city and historical capital of the region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the Oder River in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Eu ...

via

Łódź Łódź is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located south-west of Warsaw. Łódź has a population of 655,279, making it the country's List of cities and towns in Polan ...

and

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

Białystok Białystok is the largest city in northeastern Poland and the capital of the Podlaskie Voivodeship. It is the List of cities and towns in Poland, tenth-largest city in Poland, second in terms of population density, and thirteenth in area. Biał ...

. The whole road is long. Its fragment forming the bypass of

(22.7 km) is constructed in motorway standard and marked as A8. The road was constructed between 2008 and 2019 (short fragments serving as town bypasses had been constructed earlier). The construction was co-funded by the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

. In 2019, it was announced that an extension of S8 from

Kłodzko Kłodzko (; ; ; ) is a historic town in south-western Poland, in the region of Lower Silesia. It is situated in the centre of the Kłodzko Valley, on the Eastern Neisse (Nysa Kłodzka) river. Kłodzko is the seat of Kłodzko County (and of the ru ...

was added to the plans. Its main part is planned to be opened by 2027. In 2022, it was announced that there are plans for extending the road further from

to the Polish-Czech border in Boboszów which is intended to be constructed by 2033, however in the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

there is so far no planned expressway that would connect to it.

Route

S8 in Warsaw

S8 runs through Warsaw and is part of its network of bypass roads. Various fragments were completed between 2010 and 2015.Umowa na Grota podpisana. Ale roboty za kilka miesięcy

Gazeta Wyborcza (; ''The Electoral Gazette'' in English) is a Polish nationwide daily newspaper based in Warsaw, Poland. It was launched on 8 May 1989 on the basis of the Polish Round Table Agreement and as a press organ of the Solidarity (Polish trade union), t ...

It was constructed mostly as an upgrade of the city's existing inner highways. As such, it might be considered not to fully meet the definition of a bypass as it serves both the transit and local district traffic at the same time. In effect, large traffic jams form on this section every day in the peak hours. In the most recent general traffic measurement conducted in 2020 and 2021, S8 in Warsaw recorded the

annual average daily traffic Annual average daily traffic (AADT) is a measure used primarily in transportation planning, transportation engineering and retail location selection. Traditionally, it is the total volume of vehicle traffic of a highway or road for a year divided ...

of 198'000 vehicles, making it the most busy highway section in Poland. During rush hours (7-10 and 16–20), the road is closed for truck drivers, who have to bypass the city area through expressway S2 and road 50 (south-east of Warsaw), or through roads 50 and 62 (north-west of Warsaw).

Via Baltica

Originally, S8 was planned to continue from

to the border with

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

. In 2009, the plans were changed and instead S61 now branches off S8 and follows a more direct route to the border.Dz.U. 2009 nr 187 poz. 1446
S61 and the section of S8 from Warsaw to the S61's starting point serve as part of Via Baltica.

References

External links

Official page of S8 construction south of Wrocław
{{Polish Expressways Expressways in Poland Proposed roads in Poland

Route

S8 in Warsaw

Via Baltica

See also

References

External links