Expressway S19 or express road S19 (pl. droga ekspresowa S19) is a Polish freeway which has been planned to run from the border crossing with Belarus in Kuźnica, through Białystok, Lublin and Rzeszów, to the border with Slovakia in Barwinek, where it will connect with the future R4 expressway. The road is part of the Via Carpatia route. Its total planned length is 570 km (350 mi).
As of 2024, the 189.5-km long section between Lublin and Rzeszów (including bypasses of both cities) is complete. It is projected that all the remaining parts of the road should be opened to traffic between 2025 and 2029, with the exception of two mountain tunnels near the border with Slovakia which are expected to be finished by 2031.[1]
During the planning of the road, it was debated how much of it should be dual carriageway and how much single carriageway with 3 lanes in interchanging profile of 2+1 lanes.[2] The first section of the road north of Rzeszów was constructed in such half-profile (with the allocated space reservation for adding the second carriageway later). As the traffic volumes in Poland continued to grow, it was decided that the whole length of S19 will be dual carriageway; the section north of Rzeszów will have the second carriageway constructed by 2026.[3]
