PLANNING FOR A SUSTAINABLE EUROPE? - TU Berlin

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In fact, the World Bank agreed with the NGOs that the key political efforts
needed were a revision of Polish Motorway policy, and renewed attention to rail. Yet
while the NGO’s call for a reevaluation of the government’s over-ambitious highway
construction program was chiefly motivated by environmental reasons, World Bank
skepticism, quite predictably, was based on economic arguments. The World Bank’s
official road-sector recommendation to the Polish government is worth citing at length
here (World Bank 1999:i-ii):
Major investments in transport infrastructure, including motorways, are clearly
required as Poland’s economy continues its rapid growth and as it prepares for
accession to the EU. However, … considering the competing demands of the State
budget for financing many other investments in social and physical infrastructure, we
recommend that the Motorway agency and the Ministry of Transport revisit the timing
and phasing of the motorway program and look at other alternatives which could still
meet Poland’s transport needs in the coming years, but at lower cost. … [Private
concessions have] turned out not to be viable. … The A1 and the A2 sections as now
planned are separate segments which would not for the time being be linked with
other motorway segments, but yet be built as full dual carriageways with gradeseparated
interchanges. This phasing is not the most economic. Several other options
could be considered. One would be to look again at options for improving existing
roads … as a first step and postpone major motorway construction until traffic is
much higher. Another option is to start work on the motorway program, but to
concentrate first on completing the main trans-European motorway (working
outwards from Warsaw)…. All this will require rewriting of the Motorway Laws. The
Motorways Agency has received abundant advice on options before it, the time has
come for decisions. Which sections should be built first? What staging will be most
economic? Which risks should be borne by the State and which by the concessionaire?
… What decision criteria should be adopted? [Emphasis added]
For one, this quote aptly summarizes the key deficiencies of the Polish motorway
plans. Additionally, it is a dramatic reminder that an ecological modernization approach
that is consistently complemented by a neo-liberal fiscal federalism perspective (typically
exemplified by the World Bank) in fact tends to favor more moderate (and thus also
lower-impact) infrastructure construction plans than modernization approaches that are