The first of its type in Poland – “Venetian Flyover” is being built in Gdańsk

Since last Monday, at the construction of a tram line in Nowa Bulońska St., subsequent flyover elements have been assembled. It is a unique project modelled on the arched bridges that the ancient Romans built. The entire structure is innovative and is the result of the work of Polish Engineers. For residents, an important aspect will certainly be a good silencing of the structure, thanks to which the noise generated by moving trams will be reduced.

On the construction of a new tram line in Gdańsk, the contractor, NDI based in Sopot, has started a key process for the construction of the bridge structure. The first 20-meter spans made of reinforced concrete have already been inserted.

‘The assembly of the 40-tonne arch element carried out on Monday is the achievement of the entire team implementing the task,’ says Sylwia Rogall – Project Director at NDI. But, while normally there are from several to a dozen or so such elements on bridge constructions, there will be as many as 154 on our flyover in Gdańsk. Our construction is growing before our eyes.’

The entire facility is innovative in many aspects. The flyover structure was developed in close cooperation of NDI Engineers and Tymon Galewski, the owner of the GTI design studio in Gdańsk. NDI wanted to offer the City of Gdańsk a structure that is durable, efficient in maintenance and – not less importantly – original in its form. Arched bridges covered with soil have existed since Roman times and can remain in service even for 2000 years. A very old concept was applied for Nowa Bulońska St., hence the engineers called the structure under construction the “Venetian Flyover”, due to its similarities to the Roman arches, but in a completely innovative version.

‘The slenderness of the arches, their shape and placement on proportionally very high supports have definitely modern overtones and are a reinvention of the proven classic using modern technical capabilities, in particular powerful cranes and high-strength concrete,’ says Tymon Galewski. ‘The span is made of reinforced concrete shells prefabricated next to the flyover and designed for assembly using a crane. 20 m prefabricated elements are mounted as one element on supports, thanks to which they do not have locks for casting or concrete joints – structural elements that are subject to degradation in the first place. For the first time in Poland, a multi-span arch scheme was used on supports that are over a dozen metres high’

‘When building this flyover, we combined many innovative solutions – including concreting, transport and assembly technology. The result is a very wide spectrum of possibilities as to the span, load capacity, overburden/gradeline of the structure. This prompted us to submit the solution used for registration in the Patent Office,’ adds Kamil Czyżewski, Infrastructural Construction Director in NDI.

The flyover in Nowa Bulońska St. will have high utility values, which is important for residents. The use of arched structure covered with soil will allow for good silencing of vehicle traffic on the structure, incomparably better than on typical structures, e.g. on steel beams. Additionally, under the structure, there are large areas that can be arranged in a very attractive way for all kinds of recreation, e.g. playing fields.

However, this is not all that is currently happening at the construction site of Nowa Bulońska St. The progress of work reaches 75%.

‘The bituminous layers of roadways and bicycle paths, pavements as well as track structures in ¾ of the scope are laid out practically throughout the whole section. Finishing works and assembly of accompanying infrastructure elements, including lighting, tram overhead line, traffic lights, and noise barriers, are underway. Three buildings are also implemented as a part of the investment,’ says Sylwia Rogall, Project Director at NDI.

‘As soon as one year since the start of the construction of Nowa Bulońska Północna St. – one of the largest investments currently underway in Gdańsk – you can see huge progress of works. A spectacular structure is growing before our eyes, a flyover, which is an essential element of this route. Our assumption was to improve communication between the southern districts of Gdańsk and Piecki – Migowo, Wrzeszcz and Śródmieście. The new street and track will be 2.7 km long,’ says Aleksandra Dulkiewicz, Mayor of the City of Gdańsk.

To meet the expectations of residents, for whom the vicinity of the construction site sometimes causes nuisance, NDI plans to hand over for use the newly built sections of the route, after the summer holidays. The newly built sections include: the section from the so-called “old” Bulońska St. to Wołkowyska St., the section of Nowa Bulońska St. from the junction with Warszawska St. to Jabłoniowa St. along with access to the newly built School, including facilitating access from Jabłoniowa St. to the WZ route.

‘Opening to traffic of the entire road system, on the section from Myśliwska St. to Jabłoniowa St., is planned for the end of 2019, while travel by tram from Morena to Jasień will be possible in mid-2020,’ says Włodzimierz Bartosiewicz, Managing Director of the District Government Office in Gdańsk, which coordinates the project.

The investment is a part of the Strategic Development Programme of the Południe District for the years 2014-2020, developed by the city authorities. The task is carried out as a part of the Gdańsk Public Transport Programme(pl. Gdański Program Komunikacji Miejskiej) – GPKM – stage IVa. The contractor is a consortium of companies led by NDI S.A. from Sopot.

The value of the contract is PLN 192 million. The investment is co-financed from the Cohesion Fund under the Operational Programme Infrastructure and Environment for 2014-2020. The EU co-financing amounts to PLN 58.5 million.