The final cost of the construction of the navigation channel through the Vistula Spit will be known in October or November this year at the earliest, deputy Infrastructure Minister Grzegorz Witkowski told the parliamentary committee for the maritime economy and inland navigation on Tuesday.
The final cost (of the construction of the waterway through the Vistula Spit) will be known in October or November this year at the earliest, when the entire investment will be completed. Whoever will be able to predict the costs of labour, steel and finishing works in the context of the coming months will be a fool’s errand,” Witkowski said during the commission’s meeting.
In turn, the deputy director for technical matters of the Maritime Office in Gdynia, Anna Stelmaszyk-Świerczyńska, reminded during the committee meeting that the cross-cutting of the Vistula Spit, which is to be opened in September this year, does not mean the end of work on the entire project.
The works on the Elbląg river are still in progress and their deadline is April next year. There will also be dredging works on the channel through the Vistula Lagoon, at the moment a tender for this scope of works has been announced – she said.
She added that the achievement of full parameters within the whole undertaking is planned for next year while sailing between the Gulf of Gdańsk and the Vistula Lagoon will be possible already from September.
At a press conference on Tuesday, Deputy Infrastructure Minister Marek Gróbarczyk said that the official opening of the navigation channel through the Vistula Spit will take place on September 17 this year.
In mid-2020 Gróbarczyk, as minister of maritime economy and inland navigation, said that the value of the crosscut alone was PLN 992 million. However, over 1.9 billion zlotys have been earmarked for the implementation of the entire investment, including the expansion of the Elbląg port, the modernisation of the Elbląg river and the construction of a bridge in Nowakowo, as well as the construction of a waterway.
The canal of the Vistula Spit includes the construction of a sheltered harbour on the side of the Gulf of Gdansk, a navigation channel with locks and locking structures and mooring places on the side of the Gulf of Gdansk and the Vistula Lagoon, as well as a new road system with swing bridges and the construction of an artificial island on the Lagoon.
The total length of the new waterway from the Gulf of Gdansk through the Vistula Lagoon to Elblag is nearly 23 km, of which about 2.5 km is the section that will comprise the lock and external harbour and mooring place. The canal and the entire waterway will be 5 m deep.
Source: PortalMorski.pl
