Communication collapse! Carmageddon! Three years of chaos. These apocalyptic announcements accompany plans to build a bridge from scratch on an important transportation artery of Poznań. However, the appearance and functionality of the new crossing are relegated to the background, as well as the repair of an urban crime from six decades ago. We therefore asked Deputy Mayor Mariusz Wisniewski about these important issues.
Poznan media have announced: the demolition of the Chrobry Bridge and the construction of a new crossing over the Warta River in its place will begin next spring. The operation is expected to cost about 150 million zlotys and take three years. During this time the bridge will not be used by streetcars at all, and cars will have half of the crossing at their disposal (first one, and then - after the new one is built - the other). Representatives of Poznań Municipal Investments told the media that a tender for the construction work is scheduled for the turn of this year. The PIM website also shows a perfunctory message:
The execution of design documentation is underway, along with obtaining the necessary decisions. Q4 2024. - planned acceptance of the design documentation.
Chrobry Bridge in Poznan - view from the north
photo: Jakub Głaz
spectral shape
Who is preparing the project and how exactly will the bridge look and function after reconstruction? Neither the City nor the media, focused primarily on the expected traffic crunch, informs about this. And yet the Chrobry Bridge is not only part of a transportation route. It is also part of the landscape of an important part of Poznań: it forms the foreground of Ostrow Tumski with the Cathedral on one side and the Old Town - on the other. Currently, it is also an extremely pedestrian-unfriendly crossing - with narrow sidewalks fenced off by massive barriers from speeding cars. There are also no separated bicycle lanes. Cyclists therefore walk or ride on the sidewalk, which (exceptionally!) can be understood when looking at the speed of cars and the behavior of drivers.
Chrobry Bridge in Poznań - narrow sidewalk connecting the Old Town with Ostrow Tumski, no bike lane or road
photo: Jakub Głaz
The worn-out bridge will turn 60 years old in December. Commissioned in 1964, it has a lightweight and discreet design typical of the time . It is the successor to the following historic crossings (known as the Tumski Bridge) between the Old Town and Chwaliszewo and Ostrow Tumski. The previous one, built in 1925 to a design by Lucjan Ballenstedt, was highly praised for its structural quality and elegant light form. One span survived the war, dismantled in the early 1960s. At the time, the bridge was thrown over the Warta relief trough, because the mainstream of the Warta River ran differently - through a picturesque but navigationally difficult bend between the Old Town and Chwaliszewo. After the old riverbed of the Warta was filled in in the mid-1960s, the river was diverted precisely to the relief trough. In the old riverbed today there is a park (arranged only in 2017) and - unfortunately - an extensive parking lot.
Chrobry Bridge in Poznań in the interwar period - the old channel of the ulga (today's mainstream of the Warta) is visible
Source: National Digital Archive
through crime
The revolution then, moreover, included not only the "Poznań water junction," but also the transportation system. Planners then brutally cut apart the oldest parts of Poznań with a through artery(the so-called Chwaliszewo route): Old Town, Chwaliszewo, Ostrów Tumski and Śródka. The 1964 Chrobry Bridge became part of this urban highway taking traffic out of the center toward Warsaw. At the same time, the six-century-old so-called "royal route " leading from the Old Market Square to Srodka, through Chwaliszewo and Ostrów Tumski next to the cathedral, was fragmented.
Chrobry Bridge in Poznan in the course of the so-called Chwaliszewska route - along the railroad tracks to the north, a road crossing has been planned for decades to replace the transit "Chwaliszewska route"
source: openstreetmap.org
The historic parts of the city have been isolated from each other. The noisy and unfriendly route along Solna, Małe Garbary, Estkowskiego, Wyszyńskiego streets significantly reduces the quality of the space. Its implementation can be considered one of the heavier urban planning crimes on the city's organism. Indeed, the thoroughfare could have been built a little further north, along the railroad tracks leading to Warsaw. This was one of the options considered even before the war, abandoned - according to urban legend - for political reasons (the Chwaliszewska route crosses the grounds of the archbishop's gardens on Ostrow Tumski).
Chrobry Bridge in Poznań - pedestrian crossing at the level of Ostrów Tumski
photo: Jakub Głaz
However, the construction of a route along the tracks and simultaneous traffic calming on the "Chwaliszewska" thoroughfare is still in play as part of the so-called "first transportation framework. The reserve for this road system on the south side of the tracks was written in the Study of Conditions and Directions of Spatial Development. Thus, it can be seen - as a main class road in the local plan for Śródka (while Wyszyńskiego Street, which is part of "Chwaliszewska", already has the status of a local road).
The matter of rebuilding the bridge and neighboring streets and arteries is being monitored on an ongoing basis by the Stare Miasto Estate Council. Its chairman Tomasz Dworek tells us that:
the urgent construction of the first framework is necessary to correct the mistakes of the past, but also to serve the new housing estates that private investors plan to build on the north side of Ostrow Tumski on the site of the former Garbary thermal power plant. Both they and the railroad should contribute to the cost of this project. Unfortunately, so far we have little information on the City's specific intentions and related timelines.
bridge to humanization
In the face of this information glut, we asked Poznań Deputy Mayor Mariusz Wisniewski for details. He informed us that
Unfortunately, neither at the moment nor in the coming years will we find the billion zlotys needed to build the "first frame" along the tracks. We must therefore reconstruct the Chrobry Bridge in a layout that consists of a streetcar track and two roadways of two lanes each. However, the sidewalks will certainly be wider than today, and we will build a bicycle path. We are also considering designing the crossing in such a way that - when an alternative "first frame" is built for it - it will be possible to humanize the Chrobry Bridge by reducing the roadways to one lane, creating a busway or widening the sidewalks even more. Who knows, perhaps two-way vehicular traffic will eventually be on only one side of the track, and on the other side there will be space only for pedestrians and cyclists.
Chrobry Bridge in Poznan - streetcar track, view toward the center (from the east), at the close of the view axis the tower of the so-called Royal Castle/Przemysl.
Photo: Jakub Głaz
Wisniewski adds that the railroaders are already thinking very seriously about adding the necessary tracks, and the city has participated in the feasibility study for this task. It is therefore possible that PKP will collaborate in the future on the construction of the first frame. However, it is too early to talk about any specifics. And what about the architectural form of the bridge? There has not been a competition on this , although the example of the very successful Berdychovsky Pedestrian and Bicycle Bridges currently being completed nearby shows that this is the best way to a good design.
One of the Berdychowski Bridges (under construction) in Poznań; crossing between Chwaliszewo/Old Town and Ostrow Tumski
photo: Jakub Głaz
Unfortunately, concerns about the aesthetics and appearance of the bridge have not been resolved for now. Wisniewski says:
Work on the engineering design has been going on for more than two years. The structure of the bridge will be similar, except that it will be technically divided into three, rather than - as before - two component parts: a tramway and two roadways. The Office of the City Historic Preservationist also has a lot to say here . I will point out to Poznań Municipal Investments that they should be more precise about their intentions and present the already finished materials to residents. I have just received information that visualizations of the bridge are expected to be ready next month.
Finally, there is the issue of traffic hassles related to the reconstruction of the bridge. After all, along the Chwaliszewska route stands another slightly younger but similar crossing - the Mieszko I Bridge. Shouldn't both bridges be rebuilt at the same time?
I understand these concerns, but firstly, we don't have the money to build the Mieszko I bridge, and secondly,it has a more stable structure and, according to expert reports, is in much better condition.
Wisniewski adds that there is therefore a chance that the Mieszko I bridge will make it to the construction of the first frame and we won't have to reconstruct it with today's road system in mind, which is the result of bad decisions from more than 60 years ago.
