communication threats in the chosen cities of the silesian

communication threats in the chosen cities of the silesian

Horzela I. (2011).
Communication threats in the chosen cities of the Silesian agglomeration.
In: D. Kereković, R. Źróbek (ed.). The Future with GIS.
Croatian Information Technology Association – GIS Forum, University of Silesia, Zagreb, 164-170.
COMMUNICATION THREATS IN THE CHOSEN CITIES OF THE
SILESIAN AGGLOMERATION
Izabela Horzela
Higher School of Labour Protection Management
Department of Technical Science
ul. Bankowa 8, 40-007 Katowice, Poland
phone: 048 32 355 9770 / 27
e-mail: [email protected]
Summary: The article presents the results of research related with identification and forming of the
communication threats on the terrains of the chosen cities of the Silesian agglomeration
1. Introduction
The present civilization progress is the result of the dynamic development of industry,
building, transport and municipal infrastructure. This progress causes appearing new as well as
constant growth of the existing threats for human health and life and natural environment.
The protection of environment in Silesian province is the priority task according to the
regional policy. Recently the Silesia was subject to dynamic transformations connected with
restructuring of traditional sectors of economy. Scale of these changes caused many conflicts about
social, ecological and spatial nature.
The present problems of the Silesian province are connected with the necessity of
reconciliation of the competitiveness requirements and the improvement of the life quality in the
region.The main threat is the after-effects of the degradation of town-planning arrangements and
conflict between existing road infrastructure and the efficiency of functioning communication
arrangements.
Examining of existing communication threats as well as recognition of their spatial form
allows working out the plan against them on municipal terrain.
The research was led in Katowice, the capital of the Silesian province, as the example of the
area with the strong concentration of communication threats as the result of its function - as the centre
of agglomeration and in two other cities - Bytom and Sosnowiec.
2. Profile of the research region
Civilization development and technical progress are the cause of many dangers and threats.
The SilesianProvince has 12 330 km2and has above 4,8 million inhabitants. It is the most
urbanized area in the Poland. The colonial system creates 1587 locality, in this 71 cities.
The led investigations allowed to identify road communication threats on chosen areas of three
cities: Katowice, Sosnowiec and Bytom.
Katowice is the largest of the chosen cities. It has 311 179 inhabitants and surface almost 165
km². The city is the centre of the largest conurbation in Poland, which has 2,8 million people. [1].
All studied cities are on the south of Poland on the terrain of the Silesian Province. Sosnowiec
has 91,06 km2 and 220 450 inhabitants. The last research city is Bytom. The city has 69,43 km2and
182 749 inhabitants (fig. 1).
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Fig. 1. Area and numbers of inhabitants in chosen cities
Source: own work
Researched cities have the specific organization of the road movement which causes that the
course of the car and transit movement in their centers, the main internal arteries of cities. Such
communication solutions in these cities are caused by location on the slit of transeuropean corridors.
The existing components of the transport net are the good basis to creating transport integrated
system, but they are also the source of many threats, especially road ones, particularly on the terrain of
Katowice, Sosnowiec and partly Bytom.
2. Profile of the research region
Civilization development and technical progress cause many dangers and threats.
The Silesia is the area about strongly demoted environment, because of intensive exploitation
of natural resources, development of industry and transportation and urbanization.
The most severe for environment in Katowice are communication threats, especially these
related to road traffic on terrain of the city and the closet area, so called Silesian agglomeration [4].
City Katowice is located on crossing of two European corridors (fig.2):
 corridor III (E30): Berlin – Wrocław – Katowice – Lwów – Kijów,
 corridor VI (CE 65): Gdańsk – Katowice – Żylina.
Fig. 2. Main road location [4]
The road net of Katowice consists of 543.3 km of public roads. The main connections assure 4
national roads, A4 - highway section, express road Będzin - Katowice (E 75) and Drogowa Trasa
Średnicowa.
Through terrain of Katowice city runs the A4 highway from Mysłowice border to Chorzów
border¸ the total length of A4 highway on terrain of Katowice is 11 km.
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On city area runs the following national roads.
DK no. 1: Helsinki – Gdańsk – Toruń – Łódź – Katowice – Cieszyn – Bratysława – Budapeszt,
DK no. 4: Drezno – Wrocław – Katowice – Kraków – Kijów,
DK no. 79: Bytom – Chorzów – Katowice – Jaworzno – Chrzanów – Trzebinia – Kraków –
Sandomierz – Warszawa.
 DK no. 81: Katowice – Mikołów – Żory – Skoczów
 DK no. 86: Wojkowice Kościelne – Będzin – Sosnowiec – Katowice – Tychy
The net of district and communal roads have together length 498.9 km, the length of district
roads is 193.2 km.
On these roads predominates traffic to center of the city which is a result ofits position as the
central knot the Silesian conurbation.
Main communication problems of road arrangement saturation with car traffic concern the
central zone of Katowice and western and northern part of city. Elements which have influence on
development of the communication threats in road traffic in city are [3]:
 bad condition of road surfaces on main communication arteries as result of excessive
exploitation andmining damages
 roads up connected with modernization of surface and redecoration of flyovers, bridges and
sluices on communication arteries
 transportation of dangerous materials
 not obey traffic regulation
 lack of sufficient quantity of bypasses
The present ecological problems of Katowice and constantly growing the number of threats
are caused by the excessive concentration of industry, urbanization and population density.
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Sosnowiec is situated in the south-west Poland, in the Silesian province, in the centre of GOP.
The city has 91.06 km2 and 220 450 inhabitants. In relation to number of inhabitants the city
is on 3rd place in the Silesian province and on the 14th place in the country, in relation to the area the
city is on 15th place in Poland.
Sosnowiec borders on with following cities (fig. 3):
 in the north: Czeladź, Będzin, Dąbrowa Górnicza,
 in the east: Sławków,
 in the south: Jaworzno, Mysłowice,
 in the west: Katowice.
The borders with the neighboringcities are not precise and they run alongside streets or local
roads.
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Fig. 3.Communication net in Sosnowiec [9]
The city Sosnowiec has well complex road net (fig. 3). The A4 highway runs nearby
Sosnowiec. Distance from the city centre to its knots is:
 Katowice - Murckowska Street - 9 km
 Mysłowice - city center - 10 km
Across the city runs moreover:
 express road S1 (E75): Gdańsk - Cieszyn
 express road S86: Sosnowiec - Katowice - Tychy
 national road no. 79: Warsaw - Bytom
 national road no. 94: Krzywa - Legnica - Kraków
Total length of all roads on the terrain of the city is 339,7 km, in this:
 national roads - 12,0 km,
 district roads - 98,7 km,
 communal roads - 229,0 km
Road S1 is one of the main routes in the Poland. It is the Polish part of international
communication route E75: Helsinki - Gdańsk - Łódź - Katowice - Budapest- Athens. The length of S1 (DK1) on the terrain of the city Sosnowiec is 10,4 km.
National road DK86 connects Katowice and Sosnowiec (as express road S86) and its length is
3,3 km. The DK86 is the main communication canal joining Zagłębie Dąbrowskie and Silesia.
Road S86 is characterizing by high traffic intensity, difficulties connected with the transit
traffic towards the polish border and local traffic towards Katowice and back.
DK 79 is one of the three communication routes connecting Kraków and Katowice and it joins
with S1 on the terrain of the city. The length DK79 on the terrain of Sosnowiec is 5 km.
Road DK94 is toll free alternative for the A4 highway and it connects with DK79.
The sections of national and express roads on the terrain of the city Sosnowiec create many
communication threats, like: excessive noise, daily and seasonal difficulties in the local traffic,
accidents, truck transit traffic.
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The main communication problems connected with the car traffic are related to central zone of
Sosnowiec and the eastern and south part of the city, although the transit traffic was practically
eliminated from the city centre.
The elements, which have the influence on the formation of communication threats in the city
are:
 construction connected with the modernization of the road surface and road repair works of
viaducts and bridges on communication arteries,
 roaddifficulties, causing essential disturbances in the municipal traffic, like detours, changes at the
organization of the movement,
 transportation of dangerous materials
 transit traffic on DK94 connected with the dry trans-shipping harbor (hub) in Sławków and
International Airport Katowice - Pyrzowice
Bytom is a city in the south Poland, in the Silesian province, in the centre of the Silesian
conurbation. The city is in the distance about 15 km from Katowice - the capital of the province.
The area of the city is 69,44 km2 and there are 182 749 inhabitants in Bytom. In relation to
number of inhabitants the city is on 6th place in the Silesian province and on the 20th place in the
country (rys.4).
Bytom borders on six cities: Chorzów, Piekary Śląskie, Ruda Śląska, Świętochłowice,
Tarnowskie Góry and Zabrze and two communes: Radzionków and Zbrosławice. The total length of
the administrative borders of the city is above 54 km.
Bytom lies on the crossing of the main communication regional, national and international
routes. The city has good connections with the cities of the Silesian Agglomeration and important
municipal centers in and outside the country, like: Czech, Slovakia, Germany and Ukraine.
Completion of works connected with the building of the A1 highway will assure additional
road connections on the direction north-south. According to the plan A1 highway will run through the
terrain of the city, what can easily caused the growth of existing communication threats.
The communication system of the city was created as the result its historical buildings. The net
street in Bytom is faintly developed. There are many one-way road in the city centre with trams line.
The city does not possess bypasses which could lead out the transit traffic outside the city.
Bytom has 219,21 km of public roads:
 29.4 km – national roads
 5.52 km – province roads
 56.3 km – district roads
 154.7 km – communal roads
The basicset of roads in Bytom is connected with transfer of transit and truck traffic towards
province cities, like: Katowice, Kraków, Poznań and Wrocław. This causes, that there are three transit
routes and communication knots in the city center, international rout E22 and DK 4, DK11 and DK94.
Through the city runs 5 national roads, which in the considerable degree contribute to the
difficulties in the local traffic and the growth of communication threats, caused mainly by noise and
damages of road surface in consequence of truck traffic (fig. 4).
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Fig. 4. Road set in Bytom [8]
Transit traffic particularly burdens DK4 and DK11. Road DK 4 transfers the traffic from
Wrocław to Kraków. Road DK 11 transfer the traffic from the north to the west of the region (mainly
towards Poznań).
The main communication threats in Bytom are connected with road traffic. These threats result
from the road set, which was formed for needs of industrial city at the turn of XIX and XX century.
The biggest difficulties are related to the transit traffic running through the city centre. Serious
difficulties generate also situated in the centre of the city railway knot.
The main communication threats in Bytom concern its road net. Thesethreats are:
 inadequate geometrical parameters of roads according to the requirements of the present traffic,
 national and province roads are situated in the city centre
 lack of sufficient capacity surface, especially on national roads
 constant growing of traffic which causes accidents,
 bad condition of the road surfaces (ruts and potholes) reducing the driving comfort and safety.
There is a chance to improve the situation in the city byelimination of transit traffic from the
city centre through construction of the Northern Ring Road of Silesian Agglomeration and expansion
of driveways to the International Airport Katowice-Pyrzowice.
Summary
Researched cities of the Silesian province: Bytom, Katowice, Sosnowiec are the areas about
strongly demoted natural environment because of strong economic development of the region.
Inhabitants of these cities are subjected on the row of threats, one of the largest and the most
general is the road communication threat. This type of the threat concerns both the health and the quality
of inhabitants' life. The excessive movement of vehicles is particularly dangerous on roads and it leads
to regular jams in the consequence.
Communication set in Bytom is the additional difficulty. This set enforces local and transit
traffic flow by the exact city centre.
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Traffic in Katowice and Sosnowiec is partly led out beyond the city centre by ring roads. But
any difficulties on these communication routes (accident, constructions, weather condition)
automatically and totally congest city.
The excessive traffic intensity and bad condition of road surface causes continuous road
works. These construction works contribute to intensification of communication threats in researched
cities.
These threats result from:
 reducing capacity of city routs,
 frequent changes of traffic organization,
 incorrect or not current sign repair work
 leading construction work in rush hours.
Additional and very essential communication threat in researched cities is transit traffic. The
transit traffic generates for cities many inconveniences, connected with noise, the excessive road
exploitation. This is particularly visible in Bytom, where there is no ring roads.
At present the elimination and minimalization of existing threats is a part of Protection
Environment of Silesian Province Programme.
The condition of the environment determines the possibilities of the economy development
and the quality of inhabitants life.
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