Expressway S5 (Poland)

Expressway S5 or express road S5 (Polish: droga ekspresowa S5) is a limited-access road in Poland which has been planned to run along the route Ostróda – Grudziądz – Bydgoszcz – Poznań – Wrocław. As of December 2019, about 246 km (153 mi) of the road has been completed; a 22 km (14 mi) section shares the route with A2 motorway, out of the total planned length of about 437 km (272 mi).

Expressway S5
Droga ekspresowa S5
Route information
Part of E261
Length	246 km (153 mi) 400 km (249 mi) planned
Major junctions
From	S7 near Ostróda
	A1 near Grudziądz (planned) S10 near Bydgoszcz A2 near Poznań S11 near Poznań
To	A8 near Wrocław
Location
Major cities	Bydgoszcz, Poznań, Wrocław
Highway system
National roads in Poland ← S3 → S6

The construction of the road received higher priority after Poland was selected as one of the hosts of the Euro 2012 championships, since it would serve as a direct connection between three of the four Polish cities hosting matches: Poznań, Wrocław and (in part) Gdańsk. However, plans to finish the whole road before the championships were proven too optimistic and only a section between the A2 motorway and Gniezno was completed by that time. The 35 km (22 mi) section was opened on 4 June 2012.[1] This part of the S5 expressway serves as the eastern bypass of Poznań.

Other existing parts of the road are the bypass of Świecie (14 km (8.7 mi)), the bypass of Szubin (5 km (3.1 mi)), the bypass of Bydgoszcz (28.2 km (17.5 mi)) and the bypass of Śmigiel(5.5 km (3.4 mi).

The entire S5 expressway between Poznań and Wrocław is complete and open to traffic

In October 2015, the expressway had been extended from the Nowe Marzy junction (near Grudziądz) to Ostróda.[2] In November 2015, contracts were signed for the Gniezno-Grudziadz section, a total of about 150 km. In May 2017, the continuation of the S5 from the end of the eastern bypass of Poznań to just north of Gniezno opened to traffic, thus diverting most transit traffic away from Gniezno itself

References

1. (in Polish) GDDKiA article, 2012-06-04
2. Rozporządzenie Rady Ministrów z dnia 13 października 2015 r. zmieniające rozporządzenie w sprawie sieci autostrad i dróg ekspresowych, Dz. U. z 2015 r. poz. 1734 (2015-10-13)