New Warsaw-Berlin highway opens ahead of Euros

A new highway linking Berlin and Warsaw opened overnight Wednesday to Thursday, just a day before the Polish capital kicks off the Euro 2012 football tournament, officials said. “From today drivers can use the A2 motorway in its entirety, including...

A new highway linking Berlin and Warsaw opened overnight Wednesday to Thursday, just a day before the Polish capital kicks off the Euro 2012 football tournament, officials said.

“From today drivers can use the A2 motorway in its entirety, including fans arriving for the European Championships,” a spokeswoman for the GDDKiA road operator, Urszula Nalken, was quoted as saying by the PAP news agency.

The construction of the last stretch of the A2 road was delayed after the China Overseas Enginerring Group (COVEC) pulled out of the project last year.

The final 50 kilometres (30 miles) were finished by the Czech Bogl a Krysl and the French Eurovia groups.

Poland has been trying to modernise its Communist-era road infrastructure ahead of the tournament, which it is co-hosting with neighbouring Ukraine.

The championship opens in Warsaw on Friday with the match between Poland and Greece, with the final scheduled for July 1 in Kiev.

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