Progress report on the construction of Elbląg – Gdańsk Bay Waterway Stage II

In April 2022, one year will have passed since the signing of the contract to build Stage II of the waterway, which will connect the Vistula Lagoon to the Gdańsk Bay. This project stage includes shoring the banks of the Elbląg river, relocation of conflicting telecom and power utilities, and construction of a district road stretch and a swing bridge over the Elbląg river.

“This new infrastructure solution will drive economic growth of the whole region. Note also that more than 400 km of high-speed roads will be opened for traffic this year. This new waterway follows a slew of tasks to improve traffic circulation on roads and inland waters in Poland.” – says Minister of Infrastructure Andrzej Adamczyk.

“The state-funded project of building a new waterway from the Gdańsk Bay to the port in Elbląg will be complete in 2023 according to the resolution of the Council of Ministers. The Stage II work includes a new road with a swing bridge spanning more than one hundred meters long to remove a traffic obstacle in the town of Nowakowo.” – adds Vice-Minister of Infrastructure Marek Gróbarczyk.

Budimex, the contractor for Stage II of the project, is now working on water engineering tasks which include driving of sheet piles, demolition of existing bank shoring and water cleaning, and micro piling. Reinforce concrete work has begun.

“A new swing bridge is under construction to replace the river crossing in Nowakowo, which has been posing a challenge to river navigation. Stage II of the project now sees new shoring along approximately 10.5 km of the Elbląg river banks so that the new waterway can be set up. Another critical undertaking is the construction of 1.5 km of a new powiat road to provide a traffic link for the new swing bridge.” – says Andrzej Małkiewicz, Chief of the Project Execution Department at the Maritime Office in Gdynia.

4 installation sets for sheet piling have been deployed in the water and 3 more sets on land. The micro piling is done with 3 anchor drill rigs, and 3 more will arrive on-site to secure the sheet piling in the water.

“We are working on several tasks under Stage II of the Vistula Spit Canal. These are related to the construction of the new bridge in Nowakowo. We are installing clamps on the sheet piling and making platforms for subsoil reinforcement, with CFA piling for the bridge abutments. We are also working on utility service connections, relocation of utility conflicts, and installing water supply and sewage systems.” – says Bartosz Michalski, Project Engineer at Budimex SA.

There are approximately 12 surface vessels working on site. They are pontoons driven by push boats. More than 9,500 sheet piles will be interconnected, and more than 4,500 micro piles will be made with a total length of over 163 km.

“The town of Nowakowo, where Stage II is now delivered, is an island connected to the mainland by a pontoon bridge, which had been a navigation obstacle before the project began. The new 103 metre-long bridge will rotate around a vertical axis, so it will be a swing bridge instead of a draw bridge. The bridge will have a roadway. It is the third of the swing bridges built during this project. The previous two were constructed in Stage I, by a consortium of NDI and Besix. The South Bridge was opened to traffic through the construction site until December last year; now, the traffic is open through the North Bridge. – says Wiesław Piotrzkowski, Director of the Maritime Office in Gdynia.

Budimex S.A. is the contractor for Stage II of the waterway, which will connect the Vistula Lagoon to the Gdańsk Bay. The contract value is over 574 million PLN, and the time scheduled for project completion is 24 months (the contract was signed on 20 April 2021).

Stage I, which included work in the Gdańsk Bay, on the Vistula Spit, and in the Vistula Lagoon, is delivered by the NDI and Besix consortium. The Maritime Office in Gdynia is the project owner and is currently developing a new bid for Stage III construction of the project, which will be dredging of the navigation way in the Vistula Lagoon. Once fully complete, the new waterway will make the port of Elbląg accessible to ships more than 100 m of LOA, up to 20 m of breadth, and 4.5 m of draught.