Works imminent on Gdańsk Port expansion
POLAND: A Belgian firm N.V.Besix has been handed over the construction of Port Gdansk’s planned project and will be now handled by it. The process will take about six weeks until the site gets ready for the construction work to be begin.
Under the PLN 1.2 billion (EUR 290 million) project the port’s capacity will increase from 1.5 million TEU (Twenty-foot Equivalent Units) to 3 million TEU after the first phase of investment, with the possibility of further increasing capacity if needed.
The expansion will see the construction of a second deepwater berth, 650 metres long, which will be able to accommodate ships with volumes of over 18,000 TEU. The new berth will have twenty cranes of varying sizes. The project is expected to be finished within 19 months, allowing for the first ships to use the new berth by the end of 2016.
Maciek Kwiatkowski, President of DCT Gdansk, commented;
“Along with a second deepwater berth in DCT [Gdansk] which will be able to accommodate the largest container ships in the world, Poland will also gain a new level of excellence in servicing oceanic cargo links.”
The expansion is necessary as in 2014 Gdańsk handled 1.2 million TEU, approaching its maximum capacity. Research by Ocean Shipping Consultants has shown that demand for container shipping to and from Poland will rise by 160 percent over the next decade. The port expansion is being carried out in conjunction to a PLN 400 million (EUR 95 million) modernization of the 16-km railway line connecting the dock with the rest of Poland’s railway network.
