Travel Love Poland Magazine – March 2021

photos: M. Ciszewski, polska.pl
History
The erection of the bridges was connected with the construction of the
railway line on the Gołdap-Żytkiejmy route. Not only the economic
reasons impacted the decision on launching the connection, but mainly
the military reasons. The line ran along the border with Russia, giving it
the rocade character (parallel route with respect to the potential front
line), facilitating the troops redeployment in case of war with Russia. On
the route of presently closed railway line Gołdap-Botkuny-Żytkiejmy,
apart from bridges in Stańczyki, there are also structurally-alike - also
historic - bridges and railway flyovers in Kiepojcie (by the Bludzia river)
and Galwiecie (by the Jarka river). The bridges were erected in stages:
the works commenced in 1912, finished in 1918 (southern bridge: 1912-
1914; northern bridge: 1918). The construction of bridges was the
biggest challenge for the route constructors. At the stage of design
works various structural options for the new bridges were analysed. The
cheapest one was selected, consisting in the construction of five-span
bridges of reinforced concrete. Investments were preceded by the land
survey. Railway line was put into use in 1927. In the 1930s it was mainly
used as a cargo line for the transport of aggregate. In 1938 on the
Gołdap-Żytkiejmy route three pairs of passenger trains were running
per day. Exploitation of the line was finished in 1945. On the southern
bridge no tracks were ever laid. After the end of World War II - in 1945 -
the tracks were dismantled by the Red Army; in 1949, the railway line
was never put back into use
For some period of time the owner was PKP [Polish State Railways],
which in 1993 handed over the land with bridges that was not used by
the company to the Agricultural Property of the State Treasury Agency.
In the 1990s the protection of the safety barriers of the bridge was
made, by supplementing the defects in reinforced concrete barriers
with fragments of steel profiles. In 2003 the bridges were sold to a
private person.
The bridges are located ca. 800 m to the North from the Stańczyki
village. They connect the shores of the valley, in which a small
Błędzianka river flows. The bridges were built in stages: first the pillars,
then the arches, then the padding of vaults. These are the five-span,
four-pillar (pillars with quadrangular cross-sections) structures, made
of reinforced concrete, with spans in the form of round arches with
similar dimensions. Three central spans have the clear span length of 28
m, side ones - 24 m. The total length of the bridges equals 178 m, the
height from the level of pavement of the bridge to the water surface in
the river equals 36 m, the width of the roadway between the
pavements - 3.4 m. The pavements are located higher than the
roadway; the width of the pavement equals approx. 80 cm. The facades
of the bridges are decorative (pilasters, supports with capitals). On the
external sides of each of the bridge there are concrete pavements with
a roadway in the middle; the balustrades are made of reinforced
concrete and are supplemented with fragments of steel profiles.
69 TRAVEL.LOVEPOLAND