Improving Access by Rail

2019-04-23

Good news for the ports in Gdańsk and Gdynia – PKP Polskie Linie Kolejowe, the Polish railway infrastructure administrator, has finally selected winners of very important, in terms of rail access, tenders: as regards the first port, it is about performance of construction works along the line 226 and at the Gdańsk Port Północny (Gdańsk Northern Port) station and along the line 965 and at the Gdańsk Kanał Kaszubski (Gdańsk Kashubian Canal) station, while in the case of Gdynia it is about extension of the crucial Gdynia Port station.

In December last year, PKP PLK opened bids in repeated tenders for improvement of the infrastructure for rail access to the ports in Gdańsk and Gdynia. No tender bid was submitted that would have fitted in the customer’s budget. About PLN 1.5 billion was lacking to meet the cheapest proposals. Saving the port-related projects was the most important reason for increasing the value of the National Railway Programme by PLN 3.2 billion, to almost PLN 70 billion. This way the tenders were finally adjudicated, at the end of March this year.

In the case of rail access to the Port of Gdańsk, the winner is the consortium of Intercor and Torpol. At first, its proposal (PLN 1.14 billion) had been more expensive than Budimex’s; the consortium won, however, following an electronic auction. The order is for performance of construction works along the line 226 and at the Gdańsk Northern Port station and along the line 965 and at the Gdańsk Kashubian Canal station, as part of the project “Improvement of Infrastructure for Rail Access to the Port of Gdańsk”. The railway line 226 (Pruszcz Gdański-Gdańsk Northern Port) will be modernised from its 12.893 km to 15.509 km, and the investment project at the Gdańsk Northern Port station will cover the GPA (Przeróbka) and GPB (Northern Port) areas, rail yards GP1, GP3 and GP11 and the track 54 (towards Westerplatte). As part of the order, also the condition of the line 965 will be improved between its 0.141 km and 3.376 km and of the Gdańsk Kashubian Canal station together with the passing loop No. 10 between the Gdańsk Kashubian Canal and Gdańsk Northern Port stations.

In the procedure concerning the Port of Gdynia station, Budimex’s bid of net PLN 1.487 billion was selected. The contractor will have 30 months from contract conclusion to complete the task. The task comprises remodelling of the Port of Gdynia railway station along with its auxiliary infrastructure and parts of railway lines 201, 228, 723, 961, 724 and 725. Works to be performed include modernisation of the track structure together with railroad bed and drainage, making of railway traffic control devices and telecommunication equipment and systems, remodelling the traction network and its power supply, remodelling civil engineering works, buildings and structures.

These investments will first of all allow to improve the capacity of railway lines leading to Tri-city ports, which for years has been the ports’ great problem as it has hindered the expected increase in their transhipment capacity and prevented them from making logistics processes more efficient.

Article developed with Namiary na Morze i Handel magazine

fot. Namiary na Morze i Handel