Amanda has arrived at the Spit

For the first time, a ship laden with hydrotechnical stone arrived at the newly built Outer Port on the Vistula Spit. The Amanda vessel sailed from the Swedish port of Flikvik with more than 1,653 tons of stone on board, which will be used to construct breakwaters at the shipping channel being now under construction. The transportation of hydrotechnical stone by sea will reduce local road traffic along the Spit.

The first transportation vessel arrived at the southern quay – the loading quay – on Thursday around 7 am. The Amanda ship reached the Outer Port through the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Gdańsk. The Port is made up of two breakwaters. At the current stage of construction, the Western breakwater is 240-metre-long (as a target it will be 340-metre-long) and the Eastern one – approx. 330-metre-long (as a target it will be 1-kilometre-long).

– This is an extraordinary moment for us, says Bartosz Zabłocki, Head of Hydrotechnical Works Unit at NDI. – We have built virtually a new port at the Bay. Our quay is equipped with adequate ship infrastructure, such as mooring bitts, fenders etc. It is also well-lit. We have also set up 7 navigational buoys with lights to direct ships. The Amanda ship came in first; next week we expect another ship with stone, adds Zabłocki.

– Based on the past provisions and arrangements made on the logistics of material supplies to the construction site, the contractor has just started accepting loads from the Gulf of Gdańsk. The first ship has already been unloaded and we have been waiting for the next ones. The maximum engagement of water transport vessels, both from the Gulf of Gdańsk and the Vistula Lagoon, reduces the effects of the construction site on traffic along the Vistula Spit, said Wiesław Piotrzkowski, Master Mariner and Director of the Maritime Office in Gdynia.

– The construction of the mentioned shipping channel via the Vistula Spit is implemented by the government as an investment of strategic importance. Neither the epidemics nor winter stop this construction. Thus, we can look with optimism at the further schedule of works, said the Minister of Infrastructure Andrzej Adamczyk.
The NDI/Besix consortium, which builds the shipping channel via the Vistula Spit, wishes to transport by sea at least 140,000 tons of hydro-engineering stone, i.e. with 60-70 vessels.
Ships moored in the Outer Port are further protected against potential adverse weather conditions by a temporary stone-made levee. Then, they are unloaded using a special excavator with a stone grab bucket and it takes approx. 10 hours. After unloading, stone is heaped at storage yards behind the Southern Quay and virtually immediately embedded into the breakwaters.

The temporary Outer Port on the Spit is an innovative solution implemented by the general contractor i.e. the NDI/Besix consortium. It was not provided for in the project, but – thanks to its implementation – the transport of the key material was much improved and its supplies – diversified. The quay was specially prepared for this purpose. Via this route the material can also be transported to the artificial island set up on the other side of the shipping channel. In the future the port may serve ships entering the Vistula Spit Channel.

The first phase of construction of the Vistula Spit Shipping Channel started in October 2019. The construction is at its halfway point now and made on schedule. It is expected to be completed by mid-2022. NDI/Besix, the Polish-Belgian consortium of companies, which also built the DCT 2 deep-water quay in the Northern Port in Gdańsk is the general contractor of this project. The Maritime Office in Gdynia is its investor and SWECO supervises it.