A4 motorway for free. Will it clog or lift?

Many drivers have been waiting for this moment for a long time. Now they will be able to count down months, not years March 2027. Right then the concession agreement for a section of the A4 Katowice-Kraków motorway will cease to be valid. Some people will probably give up taking the alternative route DK 94 in order to get from Krakow to Katowice (or vice versa) faster (at least in theory). And without having to pay high fees. Meanwhile, another bonus appears on the horizon: the A4 road will be expanded to cope with the increasing traffic volume.

Recently, there has been a lot of talk about the increase in tolls on the A2 Motorway, which is sometimes called the most expensive motorway not only in Poland, but even in Europe. It is worth remembering that it is expensive not only in Greater Poland – using the already mentioned section of the A4 route is not cheap either. The driver of a passenger car must leave PLN 17 at each gate (in Balice and Mysłowice).. In the case of trucks, the fee is PLN 52.

Drivers have been complaining about these rates for years, and the operator keeps repeating that the costs of maintaining the route are rising, so he is also raising fees. At the same time, he points out that he must renovate and modernize the road before handing it over to the state in 2027. Because these are the conditions set out in the concession agreement. It can therefore be boiled down to the statement that it must be expensive now so that it can be free later. At least that’s how the operator, Stalexport Autostrady, can explain it.

If anyone thinks that the mentioned fees are detached from market realities, I have bad news for them: it will be even more expensive. From April 1 this year fees at toll plazas will increase to PLN 18 and 55, respectively. Information about the increases will be available at the end of January this year. GDDKiA commented. The institution found them to be… unfounded.

In its comment on the increases, GDDKiA reminded that it has no influence on them, because the possibility of increasing motorway tolls results from the concession agreement signed at the end of the last century. At the same time, however, the entity noticed that changing toll rates may affect the level of road traffic safety on local routes. Because this is where some drivers may go to avoid toll collection points. This also applies to truck drivers.

Is this the last raise before the contract expires? It’s hard to tell. What is certain, however, is that the concession will not be extended. Although Stalexport expressed its willingness to continue managing the route, the Minister of Infrastructure Dariusz Klimczak made it clear that the public party did not intend to extend the contract. One may get the impression that this decisiveness of the head of the ministry and his subordinates had an irritating effect on the highway operator.

Representatives of Stalexport declared, for example, that: they are able to expand the highway with a third lane faster than the public manager can do it. I confronted these declarations with GDDKiA and asked whether a private entity could actually cope with the investment faster. In response, the entity’s press office informed me, among other things, that:

All of them are subject to the same regulations regarding obtaining the necessary consents, administrative decisions and permits. It is also worth emphasizing the huge advantage that GDDKiA has in terms of experience in implementing complex investment tasks. This, in turn, may affect their completion date

Let us therefore assume that there is no difference whether the expansion will be carried out by a private or public entity. Another question arises: how long may the expansion take and when should it be completed? The GDDKiA press office did not want to make a declaration on this matter. However, it was noted that the expansion of the mentioned section is included in the Government Program for the Construction of National Roads until 2030 (with a perspective until 2033).

When widening the A4 Katowice – Kraków motorway, we will draw on the experience gained during the expansion of the A2 Łódź – Warsaw motorway (a tender for this investment is currently underway) and previous tasks of this type carried out under traffic conditions (e.g. expansion of the A1 in the Silesian and Łódź voivodeships). This applies to documentation, traffic organization and the investment itself. The signing of contracts for the widening of the A2 motorway Łódź – Warsaw will also give us an idea of ​​the costs related to works on the A4 route.

To illustrate the time needed to expand the A4 between Katowice and Kraków (approx. 60 km), we can cite the example of the A2 between Łódź and Warsaw (approx. 90 km). At the beginning of July 2025, we announced a tender to select a contractor for these works, and we plan to sign the contract in the first half of 2026. Completion of the works is planned for the second half of 2027

Someone less knowledgeable about the subject may ask: does this route really need to be expanded with an additional lane in each direction? The vast majority of people who travel on the mentioned section of the A4 motorway will probably answer in the affirmative. You can also refer to the hard data provided by Stalexport. They indicate that the average daily traffic volume already exceeds the threshold of 50,000. vehicles. For comparison, in 2010 it was less than 30,000. vehicles per day. If the highway becomes free, traffic will probably intensify.

For some, a warning light will come on: will the route face paralysis in a year’s time, when tolls on the Kraków-Katowice section disappear? I also went to the GDDKiA press office with this question.

No analyses, data or forecasts indicate that the A4 may stop after the introduction of free journeys for passenger cars.

The latest traffic data, including forecasts for the coming years, will be available after the results of the General Traffic Measurement 2025 are prepared, which will take place at the end of the second quarter of this year. This data, the most up-to-date of all, will be used in planned works related to the expansion of the A4 on this section. Expanding the A4 section is the most effective solution to improve traffic flow