Progress in the construction of the railway bridge over the Regalica
Construction of a new railway bridge over the Regalica River in Szczecin is underway. The first structural elements of the new rail crossing of the river can already be seen. Budimex has been working on the project for several months on behalf of Państwowe Gospodarstwo Wodne Wody Polskie Regionalny Zarząd Gospodarki Wodnej (The Polish Waters State Water Management, Regional Water Management Authority in Szczecin) and PKP PLK.
The project includes construction of the railway bridge as the river crossing along a new route, adjacent to the existing railway bridge. The crossing will comprise two steel, three-span truss structures of the bridge, with one for each track direction, sharing the abutments and pillars. The bridge will be 6.2 m above the high water level. The existing bridge will be demolished almost in its entirety, and only the drawbridge span and its immediate surroundings, to be listed as a heritage structure, will be preserved.
The objective of the project is to remove the bottleneck to the inland navigation on the Regalica while ensuring the continuity of rail traffic along Railway Line 273. The net value of the contract is 282 MPLN. The project is being carried out under the “build” formula and financed by the World Bank, the European Union and the state budget.
The entire track layout of the nearby rail station will be moved to the south, the location of the turnout heads will be changed, and the geometric layout will be adapted to the terrain conditions. Under the same project, Budimex will build about 12 km of new tracks, adjusted to the required speed and load capacity. All the new tracks will be electrified and a new overhead contact line will be installed to the required standards. A modern electronic control system will also be built, replacing the existing mechanical equipment. The construction of 25 new turnouts is planned, including curved turnouts for the line’s exit towards the bridge and to connect Railway Line 428 to the trackwork at the rail station.
There will also be a new, 400 m long, double platform at Szczecin Podjuchy station, as well as a new signal tower building to replace the existing two, plus a pedestrian tunnel with shelters and elevators. The construction work will include a new rail-over-bridge to cross above ul. Szklana, next to the new bridge over the Regalica.
“The citizens of Szczecin can already see how quickly the work on the bridge is progressing. The scale of the project is evident to those riding a train or marvelling the site from the Most Gryfitów bridge. With the current pace of work, the new railway bridge will be open in December of 2023. This is one of the most important infrastructure engineering tasks carried out by Wody Polskie in our country; we are removing the bottleneck that hinders both river navigation and the flood protection response to protect the citizens. Once the reconstruction project is finished, we can break ice on the Regalica without any problems, obstructions, or navigation blockage which are now caused by the technical specifics of the existing bridge over the Regalica. It will be a modern, comfortable and safe railway crossing,” – says Marek Duklanowski, Director ow Wody Polskie in Szczecin.
“We are delighted to deliver a project this important and longed for. The construction of the new railway bridge over the Regalica River will remove the collision between rail and the river traffic on this international inland route. It will also increase the throughput of Railway Line 273. It is also a critical project for us as the General Contractor. It combines bridge construction with railroad work, while serving inland navigation,” – says Cezary Łysenko, CEO of the Infrastructure Construction Division at Budimex SA.
Budimex specialises, as a general contractor, in the construction of bridge and hydraulic engineering structures, among others. In 2020, Budimex completed a flood control reservoir for the Oder River – the largest such structure in Poland. In 2021, Budimex completed the expansion of Europe’s largest tailings pond, Żelazny Most. The current projects of Budimex include the construction of the Vistula Spit Canal, the construction of flood protection embankments on the Oder and the construction of a pedestrian and bicycle bridge over the Vistula to connect the centre of Warsaw with the Praga Północ borough of Poland’s capital city.