On 22 November, a ceremonial handover of the agreements concluded between the Port of Gdansk Authority SA and the European Commission, represented by the Innovation and Networks Executive Agency (INEA) took place at the seat of the Ministry of Development in Warsaw. The agreements concern the award of an EU grant from the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) for three projects - two investment projects and one design project. Their total value will amount to more than EUR 140 million, including EU funding at a level of EUR 118.7 million.
Moreover, additional agreements regulating the principles of implementing investment projects at the domestic level were signed with the Centre for EU Transport Projects.
The three projects in question include: expansion and modernisation of the road and railway network in the Outer Port, expansion and modernisation of core network hubs, in terms of road and railway infrastructure on the right bank of the Inner Port (the Gorniczy Basin and Przemyslowe Quay area) - project and environmental documentation, modernisation of the fairway, quay expansion, and improvement of the conditions for navigation in the Inner Port in Gdansk.
To date, the detailed scope of work anticipated for the first two projects has been presented on the www.portgdansk.pl website. However, the largest project - both in terms of execution and costs - will be the modernisation of the fairway and the expansion of the quays, an undertaking that will contribute to the improvement of the conditions and safety of navigation in the Inner Port.
The total cost of the project (stage I) comes to more than EUR 110 million, out of which 85% (EUR 93.7 million) will be co-financed from the CEF.
The investment will be divided into 5 tasks:
Task 1. Expansion of the Inner Port fairway
Task 2. Expansion of the Obroncow Poczty Polskiej Quay and the Mew Quay
Task 3. Expansion of the Oliwskie Quay
Task 4. Expansion of the Zbozowe Quay and the Wisloujscie Quay
Task 5. Expansion of the Dworzec Drzewny Quay
The first one will mostly involve dredging, leading to the regulation of the fairway. As a result, the undertaking is intended to improve the fairway's technical parameters and increase its width to 90 m and its depth to 12 m over the section from the entry breakwater heads to the Chemikow Quay and to 75 m and 10.8 m respectively at the Przemyslowe Quay. The estimated total cubic capacity for the fairway regulation work is about 1.5 million cubic metres. The work will include removal of the dredged material causing shallowings relative to the adopted profile of the fairway bed and shaping escarpments to form a passage from the depths planned for the modernised fairway to the depths at the quays which will not be expanded as part of the project. Also the parameters of the turning areas in the Inner Port will be improved, including the turning area right at the entry to the port canal located near the duty free zone. In this case, it will be enlarged from 170 to 180 m. The parameters of the second turning area, in the Gorniczy Basin area, will be increased from 180 to 200 m. The parameters of the largest turning area in this part of the port, the turning area near Ostrow Island will be improved as well, from 300 to 315 m.
The profile of the fairway will also be modified as part of this task. Where possible, turns will become more gentle, which will contribute to the improvement of the navigating conditions for vessels moving along the fairway.
Further work will be directly related to the improvement of the condition of the quays located along the fairway, reaching higher depths directly by the quay walls and changing the nature of some of them, including turning scarped quays into parking and handling ones.
The planned work will be preceded by the relevant demolition work. The expansion of the quays will involve installation of a new steel front sheet piling in front of the existing structure and setting a reinforced concrete pile cap on it. The quays will be equipped with new devices enabling safe vessel parking and handling (fender line, mooring line, power supply system and water supply and sewage system, rescue equipment). The necessary dredging work, from the perspective of the future functioning of the quays, will be performed along the entire length of the expanded sections.
This type of investment work will be performed as part of of the expansion of the Obroncow Poczty Polskiej Quay, currently used mainly to handle aggregate, fuel and base oils, and granulated sulphur.
The new structure of the quay will improve its technical parameters. It will be extended from its current length of 345 m to 391 m. The technical depth at the quay will also be slightly increased, to 11.2 m, which will ultimately make it possible to handle ships with draughts up to 10.6 m (currently only vessels with draughts up to 10.2 m are allowed). The important thing is that in this case, the operational load of the pavement will improve considerably, up to 30 kN/m2 within the handling section.
After the modernisation is completed, the Obroncow Poczty Polskiej Quay will be a universal one and will enable handling of the largest vessels able to enter the Inner Port or simultaneous handling of two vessels. Like today, the quay will be intended mainly for the transshipment of bulk, liquid and loose cargo.
The nearby Mew Quay will also be altered, as its current condition makes it impossible to moor vessels there. After the investment is completed and the structure of the quay changed, it will have a parking function for small vessels with draughts up to 5.3 m.
The next task planned as part of the project will involve comprehensive expansion of the Oliwskie Quay and the neighbouring Ziolkowskiego Quay over the section along which the Ferry Terminal of the Polish Baltic Shipping Company operated until last year. In both cases, the structure of the quay will be altered. Due to the location of both quays where the fairway curves, the arrangement of the shorelines will be changed and, as a result, rectilinear berths will be created. Thus, the clearance of the fairway along this section will be broadened. At the same time, the technical parameters of both quays will be improved, making it possible to handle ships with draughts up to 10.6 m (currently 9.7 m) at the Oliwskie Quay, and up to 9.4 m (currently 6.6 m) at the Ziolkowskiego Quay. The conversion will also contribute to increasing the operational load of the quay pavement to 10-30 kN/m2 in the case of the Oliwskie Quay and to 10-20 kN/m2 at the Ziolkowskiego Quay.
At a further stage of the work, the Zbozowe Quay will also be expanded. At the moment, it functions as the housing of the port canal bank (scarped quay). In this case, the investment is necessary in order to ultimately be able to achieve larger depth directly by the sheet piling of the quay, as over this section, due to the broadened and deepened fairway, the edge of the expanded fairway will move much closer to the quay.
Ultimately, the quay will have a scarped structure, and over the low harbour section - a vertical-wall structure enabling parking and handling of small vessels. After the expansion, the quay will function as the housing of the port canal bank and enable mooring and handling of small vessels at the sectioned off low harbour.
Similar work will be performed at the Wisloujscie Quay located opposite the fairway. At the moment, the quay functions only as the housing of the port canal bank, but ultimately, just like in the case of the Zbozowe Quay, it will enable mooring and handling of small vessels.
The most notable changes will affect the Dworzec Drzewny Quay, which currently functions as the housing of the port canal bank, while ultimately, it is to be returned to operation and become a handling quay.
The seaborne line of the new quay, with a total length of about 1,221 m, will run at a distance ranging from 15 to 40 m from the edge of the designed fairway. Locally, in the area of the quay right by the turning area leading to the Gorniczy Basin, the distance between the edge of the fairway and the quay will be 5.5 m. Ultimately, after the investment work is completed, the quay will be adapted to handle ships with draughts up to 10.3 m for 30,000 DWT ships and 10.6 m for 100,000 DWT not fully loaded ships, although maintaining such parameters along the entire length of the quay will not be possible. This is due to the fact that over this section of the canal, in the southern part of the quay below the bed, there is the road tunnel below the Martwa Wisla, which makes it necessary to make this quay a light-duty one over the section in question. Nonetheless, the part of Dworzec Drzewny neighbouring the Gorniczy Basin will allow operational loads on the pavement even up to 30 kN/m2.
Ultimately, Dworzec Drzewny will be returned to operation and intended for so-called universal handling, i.e. transshipments of all kinds of cargo handled at the Inner Port.
The investment, estimated at nearly half a billion, is one of the largest infrastructure projects executed by the Port of Gdansk Authority SA to date. It is an investment which is to contribute, as far as possible in the given technical conditions, to making the parameters of most of the quays located in the Inner Port uniform, increasing their accessibility for larger vessels, improving the quality of service at the port and ensuring safe navigation along the port canal.
It is a comprehensive, multi-stage, technically complex and very cost-intensive undertaking, but its future effects cannot be overestimated.