Digging the Spit – current photos and a video
Works on the investment “Construction of a waterway connecting the Vistula Lagoon with the Gulf of Gdańsk” are underway. Currently, in a part of the Gdańsk Gulf, the driving of the sheet piling at the southern quay has started. Earthworks related to excavations are carried out on the area of the future Shipping Channel. Soil obtained from excavations remains on the investment area. It is transported and piled up in the southern part of the excavation, and in the future, it will be used to build the so-called envelope of the artificial island.
‘We are working on embankments for future bridge structures and roads,’ says Dominik Wróblewski, Construction Manager from the NDI/Besix consortium. The substrate is strengthened using the dynamic method. The construction site is large and needs to be properly prepared. Temporary access roads and car parks are created here.
Electrical and teletechnical works are also underway. Clashes with existing networks are resolved, e.g. through drilling. What is planned at the construction site in the coming weeks?
‘Driving sheet piling will be continued at the southern quay,’ says Jacek Szymański, Project Director of the NDI/Besix consortium. ‘In the Gulf of Gdańsk, work will also begin at the base of the western breakwater. Earthworks will continue in the area of the emerging Shipping Channel. We will also start reinforcement of the land for future bridge structures with prefabricated piles.
Work on embankments and reinforcement for roads will also be continued. Work related to the artificial island will also begin. At the beginning, a temporary quay will be built, to which the materials needed to build the island will be transported by water.
‘Works are carried out in accordance with the assumptions, which envisage their completion in 2022. The Maritime Office in Gdynia is currently working on the documentation necessary to announce a tender for Part II of the investment (reconstruction of the Elbląg River with shore reinforcements),’ said kpt.żw. Wiesław Piotrzkowski (master mariner), Director of the Maritime Office in Gdynia.
Let us recall that after the site was handed over to the contractor, i.e. the Polish-Belgian consortium of NDI and Besix, the construction site was fenced. A specialist company entered the investment area and dealt with the removal of so-called ferromagnetic objects. The remains after World War II included mainly shells, cartridges and boxes with ammunition. Facilities, i.e. a construction office, have been constructed on the premises of the investment as well.
The investment “Construction of a waterway connecting the Vistula Lagoon with the Gulf of Gdańsk” includes the construction of protective harbour from the side of the Gulf of Gdańsk, the construction of a shipping channel with a lock and the construction of closures together with waiting stations from the side of the Gulf of Gdańsk and the Vistula Lagoon, a new road system with movable steel bridges rotating around a vertical axis, which will allow passage over the channel in front of the lock and behind the lock; and the construction of an artificial island located in the Vistula Lagoon. The shipping channel will be 1.3-kilometre-long and five-metre-deep. Ultimately, it is to enable vessels with a draft of up to 4-4.5 m, length up to 100 metres and width up to 20 metres to enter the port of Elbląg. The construction of the channel through the Vistula Spit is to be completed in 2022. The investor is the Maritime Office in Gdynia, and the contractor is a consortium of NDI and Besix.
