Development of agricultural transport road network in land consolidation works

Consolidation and post-consolidation development-related investments are an opportunity to improve living and working conditions of rural residents. Land consolidation is practically the only comprehensive tool to improve the shape of the transport network in the areas covered by this process. Moreover, improving the quality of the transport network is in fact one of the main objectives of land consolidation works. In Poland, consolidation is possible owing to the EU funds RDP 2014–2020, which provide for the possibility of financing among other things, the construction of new roads, reconstruction of the existing roads and elimination of unnecessary agricultural transport roads. The aim of this paper is to analyse documentation in the form of assumptions for a land consolidation project enclosed to the RDP 2014–2020 grant application, as the basis for determining the activities and investments of post- consolidation development, related to agricultural transport road network and demonstrate financial needs in this area. The detailed study involved 9 villages in the Malopolskie Voivodeship, which applied for the EU grants for land consolidation in the current financial perspective. The paper specifies the existing state of the analysed villages as regards the agricultural road network and plots without an access to a public road defining an index for plots without road access. The study presents also types of investments under post-consolidation development regarding the development of the agricultural transport road network. As a consequence, it specifies the density indicator of agricultural transport road network before consolidation and the anticipated growth after its implementation planed in the assumptions for a land consolidation project.