Construction of the Shipping Channel – film and photos
Construction of the Shipping Channel – film and photos
Work is in progress on the project “Construction of a waterway connecting the Zalew Wiślany with the Zatoka Gdańska”. At the moment, the kaffer works are underway, consisting in sinking the sheet piling of the southern wharf. Dredging and backfilling works are also underway there. Excavations are in progress at the place where the Shipping Channel is being built and the excavated material is being transported and dumped in the southern part of the trench. It will be used to build the envelope of an artificial island
– We have already completed the construction of the access road to the temporary loading quay – says Dominik Wróblewski, construction manager of the NDI/Besix consortium. It is here where transport of material necessary for the project will be delivered by sea and unloaded. We are also carrying out works related to the strengthening of the dyke. We have already driven piles under the supports of the southern and northern bridges.
Further electrical and technical work was carried out at the construction site. Drilling was completed to remove collisions in the southern part of the investment. Collisions with medium voltage lines will soon be removed. The network is being developed to supply the construction site.
– We are starting the encampment work on the western breakwater – says Jacek Szymański, project director from the NDI/Besix consortium. We are also deepening the water pool. During this difficult time, we try to provide our employees and subcontractors with all possible means of protection and continue the planned works. We have disinfectants, personal protective equipment. We work in two teams, taking turns, week by week. About 150 people are currently working on the construction site, 40 equipment units. We employ about 30 subcontractors, the vast majority come from the region.
– Work on the construction site is ongoing. As in all other aspects of our activity, both ours and the contractor’s, all recommendations of the Chief Sanitary Inspector and other state organs have been implemented – says Master Mariner Wiesław Piotrzkowski, Director of the Maritime Office in Gdynia. – Currently, the contractor is preparing technological designs for the sluice, the canal housing and the eastern breakwater.
As part of the contract, Stage I of the project is implemented, which includes:
– construction of a shelter port from the Zatoka Gdańska,
– construction of a shipping canal with a lock and closure structure together with waiting stations from the side of the Zatoka Gdańska and the Zalew Wiślany, as well as navigation signs, technical buildings (including installations), car parks, a viewing point, a new road system with two mobile steel bridges with a vertical axis of rotation, which will enable passage over the canal in front of the lock and behind the lock, power and telecommunication networks, water supply and sewage systems, underground water intake,
– building an artificial island located on the Zalew Wiślany.
The whole investment project includes the above mentioned tasks under Stage I and:
– reconstruction of the existing waterway on the Elbląg river in the scope of bank enclosure, which will eventually take over the flood protection functions of the dykes and construction of low havens to facilitate access to the river; construction of a rotating bridge over the Elbląg river in Nowakowo, together with changes in the road system – Stage II;
– construction of a waterway on the Zalew Wiślany – Stage III.
The Maritime Office in Gdynia is currently finalising the documentation necessary to announce a tender for Stage II of the investment (reconstruction of the Elbląg River with bank fortifications and a bridge in Nowakowo).
The total length of the new waterway will be 22.880 km (including the passage through the Zalew Wiślany – 10.176 km; Elbląg River – 10.381 km; the remaining 2.323 km is a section of a berth, lock and external harbour) and its depth is 5 m. Ultimately, it is supposed to allow ships with draught up to 4-4.5 m, length up to 100 m and width up to 20 m to enter the port in Elbląg. The construction of the canal on the Mierzeja Wiślana is to be completed in 2022. The investor is the Maritime Office in Gdynia and the contractor is a consortium of NDI and Besix companies.
The current state of the investment site can be seen on the photos and video from the construction site. You can use these materials with the annotation “NDI/Besix press materials”.
