Autostrada A6 (Poland)

Infobox European road
marker_



eroad=
length_km=22
plalength=29 km
starting_terminus=
junction= S3 express road (planned)
ending_terminus= becomes S3 express road at Kijewo
future extension planned along current S3 to Rzęśnica
countries=Poland
regions=
cities=SzczecinThe A6 highway in Poland is a short (22 km) motorway that starts at the Polish/German border at Kołbaskowo/Pomellen (connecting to the German A11 autobahn), forms a southern bypass of the Szczecin metropolitan area, and terminates to the east of that city where it becomes the S3 "express road" to Świnoujście. Another 8 km of the S3 road will be redesignated as A6, once improvement work is carried out. The highway is a part of the European route E28.

The motorway had its beginning as a "Reichsautobahn" built by Germany in the 1930s, as part of a planned autobahn connection between Berlin and Königsberg in East Prussia (today Kaliningrad in Russia), the so-called "Berlinka". All construction work on this and other autobahns was stopped by 1942. After the war the highway together with the surrounding area became a part of Poland, and the post-1945 borders meant that the need for a high-capacity road connection on that route disappeared. Even though much of the construction work was already done, it was not continued by the postwar Polish government. Of the portion that ended up on Polish territory, only a 29 km stretch east from the border with Germany was fully completed as a dual-carriageway autobahn (in 1936-1937 ( [http://www.autobahn-online.de/ausserdeutschestrecken.html] ). Most of this stretch (22 km) became the A6 of today, the rest is signed as the S3 "express road". Further to the east, for another 30 km, one finds a partially completed, single-lane motorway, signed as a secondary road DW142 (part of it has been reconstructed as an emergency military road airstrip). Further east the road is no longer passable, but the earthworks left from the motorway construction stretch for about 100 km more, and are easily visible on satellite photographs.While not part of A6 in any formal sense, another part of Berlin-Konigsberg autobahn was the single carriageway section east of Elbląg (Elbing), built in pre-war East Prussia and now in Poland and Russia. That stretch is also being rebuilt now and will be opened to traffic in the next few years, after six decades of being closed by the border.

Once the damage caused by wartime demolitions was (mostly) repaired, the highway did not see any significant upgrades or reconstruction until the 1990s. As a result, it fell far short of modern standards, and so on some maps it is not marked as a motorway (in whole or in part). Work on upgrading the highway to modern standards began in the late 1990s. At present, the full 22 km from the German border to the junction with National Road 10 has been reconstructed, with the last 7 km stretch fully opened on 26 September, 2007. However, some interchanges are still awaiting upgrades, and a major interchange with the planned express road S3 is to be added in the next few years. An additional 8 km (today signed as S3 express road) is to be upgraded at some future date (by 2010 according to plans) and redesignated as A6. In the more distant future A6 may be extended north to Goleniów and reach a length of about 50 km.

In the long term, it is possible that a motorway along Poland's Baltic coast will be built. If that happens, the A6 will very likely form a part of it. However, at present not even preliminary plans for such a highway exist, and the completion of the A1, A2 and A4 highways, together with a network of "express roads", has a much higher priority.

Exits list

BAB-weiterBAB-A|11

Berlin
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----Temporary signed as DrogaEkspresowaPL|3BAB-E|65.
After modernization, this part of road will be marked as AutostradaPL|6 :----
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----BAB-weiterDrogaEkspresowaPL|3BAB-E|65 BAB-E|28

Świnoujście
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External links

* [http://mapa.szukacz.pl/?x=205612&y=622854&t=WYBRANY%20PUNKT&z=3 Map of A6, via mapa.szukacz.pl]
* [http://www.berlinka.pcp.pl/a6.html Photo gallery of A6]
*Kołbaskowo interchange coord|53.34073|N|14.444420|E|type:landmark
*Gryfino interchange coord|53.333923|N|14.54489|E|type:landmark
*Szczecin-Podjuchy interchange coord|53.363275|N|14.61830|E|type:landmark
*Partially completed Stargard-Szczeciński interchange, on the DW142 road coord|53.433993|N|15.07528|E|type:landmark
*End of passable section near Lisowo coord|53.431935|N|15.2895|E|type:landmark
* [http://www.berlinka.pcp.pl/oxford1956.html A6 depicted on a map from 1956 British atlas. The section east of Szczecin is incorrectly shown as an existing motorway. It actually corresponds to the portion where the construction work was well advanced, but not continued after the war.]
* [http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=191165 Discussion thread about A6, with current construction photos]