Świnoujście-Szczecin Fairway to undergo modernisation
Marek Gróbarczyk, the Minister of Maritime Economy and Inland Shipping, and Joachim Brudziński, the Minister of Internal Affairs and Administration, have participated in the official signing of a contract between the maritime Office of Szczecin and a consortium of Dredging International nv and Van Oord Dredging and Marine Contractors bv, the contractor for the project of ‘Modernisation of the Świnoujście - Szczecin Fairway by its dredging to 12.5 m’, says the Szczecin and Swinoujscie Seaports Authority.
‘In June, we hosted a meeting of maritime sector representatives from all over the world who came to Szczecin to celebrate the International Maritime Day Parallel Event’, said Minister Marek Gróbarczyk. ‘The number of delegates far exceeded our expectations. By that event itself, Szczecin reminded everyone about its maritime profile. Today, the signing of the contract puts the city on the global economic map for good. I should congratulate and thank everyone who contributed to the development’.
Minister Joachim Brudziński also thanked all people who contributed to the implementation of the investment and had never doubted in the vision. He specifically referred to Eugeniusz Kwiatkowski, who was able to turn a small fishing settlement into a seaport on the Baltic Sea. The Minister predecessors of the current director of the Maritime Office of Szczecin, namely Roman Pomianowski and Piotr Nowakowski.
Dariusz Słaboszewski, the President of Board for the Szczecin and Świnoujście Seaports Authority, ensured everyone present that the opportunities created by the project will certainly be utilised. ‘We open a new era in the history of the Szczecin seaport’, he said.
The Maritime Office of Szczecin signed a preliminary finance contract for the project with the EU Transport Project Centre in June 2016. A year later, an application for funding was filed, and in December last year, the finance contract was concluded with the Centre’, said Wojciech Zdanowicz, Director of the Maritime Office. ‘The Project will be partly funded by the European Union from the Operational Programme Infrastructure and Environment 2014 – 2020, and the total project cost is about PLN 1.4 bn.
The price of the contract signed with the Belgium-Dutch consortium of Dredging International and Van Oord Dredging and Marine Contractors is in excess of PLN 1.33 bn. The consortium is expected to complete the project within 42 months.
The investment project involves dredging of the Świnoujście – Szczecin fairway to 12.5 m along a stretch of roughly 62 km combined with widening of the fairway to 100 m and rebuilding of river banks, dredging and widening of turning basins for ships, and building additional hydro-engineering structures, such as two artificial islands on the Szczecin Lagoon. The two islands are to be developed using dredge spoil from the dredging works. The deeper fairway will enable larger ships of 11.0 m in draught calling at Szczecin (at the moment permissible draught is 9.15 m). Today, the Szczecin seaport can handle ships with about 20 thousand tons of cargo, which is going to double after the implementation of the project.