Former President of AWSA and AWSAII, member of the Supervisory Boards, Andrzej Patalas died.

In the morning od 2 February in Warsaw died Andrzej Patalas who had remained President of AWSA and AWSAII for many years and who was Member of its Supervisory Boards since a few months.

Andrzej Patalas,  Doctor of Engineering, the long term President of the Management Boards of Autostrada Wielkopolska S.A. and Autostrada Wielkopolska II S.A. and the member of the Supervisory Boards of both companies for a few months, died of brief and sudden illness on February 2nd. He was a man of large calibre and superior personality, a great friend to people, who just started to enjoy retirement with his family and grand children. The A2 Motorway from the German border to Konin was his life’s work, and we owe it to his enormous determination.

Andrzej Patalas was a one-man institution whose professional career was dedicated to road construction. At the beginning of the 90-ties, when a concession motorway seemed to be a far-fetched and abstract concept, he fathered the Autostrada Wielkopolska project together with Dr. Jan Kulczyk. In the years 1994 – 1999 he organised the Agency for the Construction and Operation of Motorways, and became its President. Mr. Patalas set up the motorway construction programme in Poland. In the years 2003 – 2011 the Poznań motorway companies led by him opened to traffic the total of 255 km of the modern A2 motorway, connecting Poland to the European motorway network. His long-term experience as a road construction engineer and his persisting passion in the implementation of the A2 Motorway project to Świecko not only enabled creating the development strategy and holding negotiations with the government and business partners, but also manifested itself in his personal supervision of  construction works.

Andrzej Patalas was a man of outstanding values with a clearly set objective which he strived for, encouraging other people’s enthusiastic participation. Nothing was impossible for him. He was a one-man institution with versatile talents, exceptional memory, a great sense of humour, winning people over by being direct and open, and showing genuine interest. To his associates at work, he was not only the manager, but also a true friend.