Baltic Sea autobahn completed.

After 11 years and 2 billion, the four-lane A20 autobahn from the western German city of Lbeck to Stettin in Poland has finally beeen completed. The 325-km motorway runs parallel to the Baltic Sea and will encourage economic development in a depressed area of eastern Germany. This is the first major east-west connection in unified Germany. Companies are being encouraged to open offices along the new motorway and the cheaper Polish wages in Stettin may prove attractive. A western extension of the motorway has been suggested but environmentalists are unhappy about the impact of this first link. The government has said that ten per cent of the budget has been spent on environmental damage limitation projects.