Works on the dock bay in the Port of Gdynia

A new bay for a floating dock is being built at the Port of Gdynia. To complete this investment project, it was necessary, among others, to: dismantle the old slipway and remove it from under the water. The Maja floating crane took on the difficult task. Prior to this, the large structure had to be excavated and cut into pieces. What else is happening on the construction site?

The construction of a new bay for a floating dock is another investment project carried out in the Port of Gdynia. As part of this project, a number of tasks are planned, such as the demolition of the longitudinal slipway and quays of the slip bay housing, the Southern Quay II at the slipway and part of the Western Quay together with the closing quay. In addition, a new dock bay and its housing quays must be constructed, as well as reinforcement – reconstruction of the quays in the area adjacent to the new bay. For this purpose, it will be necessary to sink dock dolphins in the area of the planned location of the floating dock, create a paved surface for the wheeled crane, connect utilities to the dock basin along with alteration of the network, as well as complete earthworks and dredging works. Finally, it will be necessary to move the floating dock from its existing location to the newly constructed bay.

In the second stage, the demolition of the head of Pier No. II, securing the front of the shortened Pier, alteration of the onshore network, removal of dock dolphins from the area of the old location of the floating dock is planned. The companies belonging to the NDI Group are the general contractor of this project.

Maja lifted 90 tons

Importantly, many of the planned works have already been completed. Recently, the contractor managed to perform a difficult operation, which was to extract the old slipway from the bottom.

– The entire structure weighed over 100 tons. To extract it, it had to be unearthed and cut into pieces, which made it possible to dismantle it using a diamond rope. We were assisted in the demolition works by a machine belonging to the Polish Ship Rescue Service, the crane called Maja – reports Paweł Ciomek, construction manager from the NDI Group. – It is a machine with a lifting capacity of 330 tons, a length of 55 meters and a width of 25 meters. At our construction site, she pulled 16 foundations of the old slipway out of the water one by one. The largest element weighed over 90 tons.

End of pile-driving works

The general contractor may boast of having already completed the entire scope of pile-driving works. Reinforced concrete works are currently underway and progress is estimated at 80%. Importantly, the key element – the caps on the head – has already been concreted. In addition, works in various disciplines are progressing in parallel.

– The contaminated soil was excavated and disposed of, which, combined with the dismantling of the slipway, allows us to free the entire jobsite for dredging works – says Hubert Konkol, works manager from NDI. – In the near future, it is planned to complete the reinforced concrete works, continue dredging and discipline works, as well as start one of the last elements of the project – concrete surfaces.

The construction of the dock bay is another hydrotechnical investment project completed by the NDI Group for the Port of Gdynia.

The contract value is over PLN 82 million gross.