Poland

General description:

Motorways and motorway-like roads: The only existing motorway numbers are A1, A2, A4, A6, A8 and A18. The numbers are derived from parallel national route numbers. Each motorway forms one route together with the national road with the same number without 'A', and usually also with the expressway with an S number.

For example, route 6 has a small section of A6 near Szczecin, a section is called S6 near Gdansk, and the rest is the (DK)6.

An exception are the A1, S1, route 1 which are all separate (but this is probably temporary, while the A1 and S1 are not finished yet).

There is one suffixed number A4a, which is a spur linking the A4 to road 914 west of Kraków.

There are exit numbers determined by kilometers, but these only appear on maps and rarely on signs and are omitted on new signs. It is planned to introduce sequential exit numbering. 

The S for expressways originally comes from 'droga szybkiego ruchu' (fast traffic road).

National roads: 1- and 2-digit numbers are even for east-west routes and odd for north-south routes. This does not seem to hold for 3-digit numbers though there are probably more such numbers satisfying this rule than violating it.

1-digit numbers are the main international routes forming a grid. They all have E numbers, and most of them have exactly the same route as an E road.

Routes 2, 4, 6 and 8 are the main east-west routes, with 2/A2 coinciding with the E30 Berlin-Warszawa (Warsaw)-Minsk. Route 4/A4 is the E40 Dresden-Kraków-L'viv. Route 6/A6 links Szczecin and Gdansk. Route 8 coincides with the E67 Warszawa-Wroclaw-Praha. It crosses the A4 south of Wroclaw.

Odd 1-digit numbers are the main north-south routes, with 1 in the middle (the Polish section of the E75 Gdansk-Katowice-Bratislava), 3 in the west (the E65 Swinoujscie-Szczecin-Praha), 5 a diagonal road coinciding completely with the E261, linking 1 and 3. 7 is the Polish part of the E77 Gdansk-Warszawa-Kraków-Budapest and 9 branches off 7 at Radom, leading to Rzeszów and on to the Slovak border. This one has only recently been designated as E371.

2- and 3-digit numbers are other main roads. Zones for 3-digit numbers range from 1 in the northwest to 9 in the southeast.

Local roads do not appear on signs. There seem to be national systems both for Powiat and Gmina roads but some provinces have a numbering system of their own (with low numbers).

The syntax description given here is based on a sample only and probably incomplete.

Road signs:

Signs on the A6, 2008

A dashed shield border indicates a road with maximum 10 t per axle:

A black border indicates a maximum of 8 t per axle:

New motorways and expressways have exit numbering:

History: The first Polish motorways were built in the 1930's in areas which were then part of Germany. After World War II, for many years no new motorways were built. Until 2000, only a few small sections have been built. There are plans to build a number of long distance motorways across the country.

After former German areas became Polish, the German road numbers were removed (see also Germany History), and a Polish system with 1- to 3-digit numbers was introduced. In this system, E roads did not have a (signposted) national number.

There were T roads complementing the E numbers, with numbers derived from them: T7 branching off E7, T12 off E12 etc.

The current numbering system was adopted around 1986, in conjunction with the introduction of the new E numbers.

S numbers were introduced around 2005.

In September 2000, the current system was changed significantly in the following ways:

• 1. Many 3-d numbers were upgraded to 2-d numbers.

  2. This was done by extending existing 2-d numbers and adding new ones that did not exist before, but also many 2-d numbers were changed: so many that the zone system no longer applies to 2-d numbers.

  3. All 1-d numbers were retained but route 8 was extended to the Lithuanian border via Bialystok and 5 was rerouted near Wroclaw.

  4. National roads parallel to motorways (e.g. route 4) were given other numbers so that the motorway numbers now form an integrated system with the national roads (e.g. route 2 has a motorway part A2). In general route 9x is the old road parallel to motorway Ax (even if the motorway was built long before the current road numbering system was introduced, and thus the road never had number x).

  5. Some 2-d numbers were downgraded to 3-d numbers.

  6. A few 3-d numbers were changed to other 3-d numbers.

The following table shows all known road number changes in 2000:

In August 2016 the S69 was replaced by the S1, the old S1 west of Bielsko Biala became the S52. The northern ring road in Kraków (formerly S7) also became the S52.

Sources and links: various maps and atlases

1. Official sites:

2. GDDKiA

3. GDDKiA road information

4. GDDKiA route list

   1. Exit names and numbers 2020

5. GDDKiA archive

6. Official route list A/S 2016

• 1. Roads with weight limitations indicated by dashed or black border

7. Other links:

8. przezautaszybe

9. Map of motorway and expressway projects

• 1. SISKOM - Stowarzyszenie Integracji Stolecznej Komunikacji

  2. New road numbering system

  3. www.autostrady.com: Motorways

  4. Former Reichsautobahnen in Poland

  5. Maps

  6. Road pictures

  7. Historical topographical maps

  8. Road condition map

10. Specific roads:

• 1. A2

  2. Autostrada A2

  3. Autostrada A4

  4. A4 plans

  5. S3

  6. S6

  7. S19 Rzeszów

  8. Droga Krajowa 22

  9. DK81

  10. Other pages within this site:

  11. Europe

11. Road sign colours

• 1. Germany

12. Pictures:

• 1. A4 east

  2. A8 north

  3. S3 south

  4. S3 north

  5. S5 north

  6. DK12 west

  7. DK32 west

  8. DK18 east

  9. DK18 west

  10. DK18 surroundings

  11. DK94 east

  12. DK94 west

  13. DW296 north

  14. DW296 south

  15. Wrocław various

Marcel Monterie