A6 autostrada (Poland)

*Autostrada A6*
Autostrada A6
Route information
	Part of E28
Length	29.2 km (18.1 mi)
Major junctions
From	Bundesautobahn 11 at border with Germany at - Kołbaskowo
	S3 express road ; S10 express road (planned)
Location
Major cities	Szczecin
Highway system
	National roads in Poland; Voivodeship roads;

The autostrada A6 in Poland is a short motorway that starts at the Polish/German border at Kołbaskowo/Pomellen connecting to the German A11 autobahn. It forms a southern bypass of the Szczecin metropolitan area and terminates at Rzęśnica interchange to the east of the city, from where it continues in an expressway standard as S3 towards Świnoujście and S6 towards Gdańsk. Its length is 29.2 km (18.1 mi). The motorway is part of the European route E28.

History[]

The 1930s (construction)[]

The motorway had its beginning as part of the Reichsautobahn system built by Germany in the 1930s, as part of a planned motorway connection from Berlin through the "Polish Corridor" to Königsberg in East Prussia (present-day Kaliningrad, Russia). Construction works proceeded up to Rummelsburg (Miastko) after the 1939 Invasion of Poland, but finally discontinued in 1942 due to the World War II impact. After the war, the highway sections that, together with the surrounding area, became a part of Poland were dubbed Berlinka. The post-1945 borders meant that the need for a high-capacity road connection on that route disappeared and 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 29.2 km (18.1 mi) stretch east from the Oder-Neisse line border with Germany was fully completed as a dual-carriageway autobahn (in 1936-1937 ([1]), which became the A6 of today. Further to the east, for another 30 km (19 mi), one finds a partially completed, single-lane motorway, signed as voivodeship road 142 (part of it has been reconstructed to also serve 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 (62 mi) more and are easily visible on satellite photographs. While not part of the A6 in any formal sense, another part of the Berlin-Königsberg autobahn was the single carriageway section east of Elbląg (Elbing), built in pre-war East Prussia and now in Poland and Russia. That stretch had been rebuilt and was opened to traffic in 2008 as express road S22.

1996 – present (reconstruction)[]

In the years after the war the damage caused by wartime demolitions was repaired, though not completely as some Oder bridges were only rebuilt with a single carriageway. After that, the motorway 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 was not marked as a motorway (in whole or in part). Work on upgrading the highway to modern standards began in 1996, starting with the full rebuilding of Oder bridges. The first 22 km from the German border to the junction with national road 10 have been reconstructed in years 1996 – 1999 and 2005 – 2007. The eastern 6.5 km were reconstructed (and then officially redesignated as A6) in 2012 – 2014 and 2017 – 2020.^[1] As of 2020, one last fragment with 0.8 km of the original pre-WWII concrete surface remains near Kijewo interchange, which is going to be upgraded as a part of the interchange's reconstruction.^[2]

Exit list[]

A11		Berlin

	(0)	- Kołbaskowo border crossing
		Services Kołbaskowo
		Services (dir. Szczecin)
	(3)	Kołbaskowo
		Rest area Kołbaskowo (dir. Berlin) (planned)
		Bridge over West Odra (207 m)
		Bridge over Regalica river (227 m)

	(9)	Gryfino

	(11)	Interchange Klucz S3 E65
		Viaduct over Smocza Street (154 m)
	(15)	Szczecin-Morwowa (Podjuchy)
		Viaduct in Klęskowo (242 m)
	(21)	Interchange DK 3 E65

	(28)	Szczecin-Dąbie
	(29.2)

S3 E65 E28		Świnoujście