The last decade of the Port of Gdańsk was marked by the revival of port functions on the Martwa Wisła. The so-called Inner Port within its main boundaries gained many modernized quays with better hydrotechnical parameters. The waters of the Martwa Wisła located east of the Stay Bridge were also subject to intensive modernization processes in the past decade. The Maritime Office in Gdynia consistently implemented a program to revive shipping on the section leading from the Siennicki Bridge through the town of Pleniewo to the mouth of the Śmiała Wisła.

At that time, dredging works in this water body were carried out by a consortium led by P.R.C.iP. Sp. z o.o. The effect of these works was the restoration of optimal navigation parameters, which had a positive impact on maritime companies headquartered along the banks of the river. The modernization of the waterway had an extremely stimulating effect on nearby companies. This was reflected in the economic landscape of the city. The view of cranes, new shipyard halls and marinas has already become a permanent fixture in this part of Gdańsk. The latest and undoubtedly the largest construction in this area is the completion of the Marine Transhipment Terminal for Petroleum Products on the Martwa Wisła. The location of a new quay consisting of two transhipment stations capable of accepting ships 130 m long was a natural consequence. It was supported by the earlier modernization of the waterway and the convenient location of the production infrastructure of the Gdańsk Refinery right by the river. The investment in the construction of transhipment stations for tankers was a task carried out by a consortium – headed by NDI together with partners and subcontractors. The construction was divided into the so-called The land front (construction of transmission installations, concrete and pile-driving works of quays, their equipment with lighting, handling equipment, fire protection, drainage or control) and the water front, i.e. hydrotechnical works. In order for the terminal to be able to accept freighters with a draft of up to 5.8 m, further dredging works were necessary. In this respect, the task was entrusted to the Dredging and Underwater Works Company. As part of the construction of the Petroleum Products Terminal, P.R.C.iP. deepened the bottom of the adjacent water body to 6.7 m. The excavated material from the bottom was taken to the sea dump. As part of the task, the Company extracted 83,000 m3 of sediments and silts. The works on behalf of the Company’s fleet were carried out by the flagship units: the suction-hopper dredger “Inż. St. Łęgowski” and the backhoe dredger “Kraken”. In addition to them, the company also delegated its self-propelled barges to additional tasks. The measurement accuracy was also performed by hydrographers from P.R.C.iP.Sp. z o.o. And all the entrusted works were performed in accordance with high standards of fauna and flora protection. The effective work of the yellow-green fleet was a significant contribution to the rapid implementation of the construction of the new terminal of the Gdańsk Refinery built within the framework of MLM – small maritime logistics. Once again, the activities of the Company on the Martwa Wisła contribute to the further development of the port in Gdańsk and the maritime economy of the Republic of Poland.

P.R.C. i P Sp. z o.o. performed dredging and filling works in Świnoujście. This concerns an investment called “Construction of the transshipment capacity of the sea port in Świnoujście to serve the needs of offshore wind energy”, i.e. an installation terminal for offshore wind farms. PRCiP acted as a subcontractor of PORR.

Let us recall that the Management Board of the Szczecin and Świnoujście Seaports is responsible for the offshore (hydrotechnical) part of the entire investment, and PORR was the general contractor. The investor of the onshore part is Orlen, which, together with its Canadian partner Northland Power, is implementing the project of building the offshore wind farm Baltic Power. It is to be composed of 76 wind turbines with a capacity of 15 MW each. The contractor of the land part is Budimex. It is planned that the terminal will start operating in 2025, and it will employ approx. 100 people. The marine part includes the expansion of quays no. 1 and 2, deepening the entrance channel and port basin, and the construction of quay no. 3 over a length of approx. 300 meters, which will allow for the further development of the installation terminal in the future. The target technical depth at the quays is 12.5 m. In the first stage, two new quays with a total length of approx. 500 m are to be built. They will have 10 stations for the initial assembly of towers. Storage yards will be created on land. Each of the two available quays will allow for the initial assembly of wind turbine towers with a height of over 100 m and a weight of approx. 1,200 tons each. They will also enable the largest currently available specialist jack-up vessels to operate, used for the installation of offshore wind farm elements. The Dredging and Underwater Works Company, acting as a subcontractor, was tasked with “Performing dredging and backfilling works on quays no. 1 and 2”. – The scope of works included performing dredging works on the approach water to the newly constructed installation terminal in Świnoujście for servicing offshore wind farms to a depth of 12 m, as well as backfilling works behind the newly installed sheet pile wall along quays no. 1 and 2 with a length of approx. 500 m, on an area of ​​approx. 12,500 sq m – informs Agnieszka Królikowska from PRCiP. – Backfilling was carried out in the amount of 155,500 cubic meters of sandy soil, and 828 cubic meters of agglomerated soil were transported and stored on the sea dump. PRCiP also exercised ongoing hydrographic control over the works. They lasted from the end of May to July. Earlier (in February and March this year) the company carried out demolition work there. Let us add that it is the largest dredging company in Poland. It has been on the market for over 75 years, has extracted millions of cubic meters of ore and has participated in many important maritime projects of the Republic of Poland

   The contractor will be a consortium of FABE POLSKA Sp. z o.o. (Leader) and Przedsiębiorstwo Robót Czerpalnych i Podwody Sp. z o.o. Under this contract, a fairway 8.6 km long and 5 m deep will be constructed on the Elblag River. The task specifies work on a section of 6.6 km from the Vistula Lagoon upstream and 2 km between points P1 and P2, i.e. roughly from the discharge of the sewage treatment plant to the fork of the river and the Jagielloński Canal . On the P1-P2 section, surveys will be carried out and the bottom will be cleared of ferromagnetic obstacles (e.g., scrap metal, reinforced concrete elements, large-size obstacles, historical military remains). New navigational markings will also be made on it in the form of 8 buoys: 4 rolled red ones on the left side and 4 conical green ones on the right side. The total volume of the work will be about 1.5 million cubic meters. After exploration, the excavated spoil will be transported and built into an island in the Vistula Lagoon. The work will be carried out in accordance with environmental decisions, which stipulate periods when work cannot be carried out. Thus, for example, during the period of the descending migration of the eel (1.09-30.11), dredging works will be carried out only from sunrise to sunset, and due to the spawning of the blowfish, from April to mid-June, halted completely. The contractor will be required to follow the Natural Guidelines for Conducting Dredging and Subdredging Works, which, among other things, means the need to minimize and counteract the spread of suspended solids. There will also be ichthyological monitoring, including measurements of oxygen content in the water, monitoring of the cleanliness of the basin, and ornithological surveillance of the land part of the works and the dredged material disposal site, i.e. the artificial island. The contract from the side of the Maritime Office in Gdynia (Investor) was signed by: Director of the Maritime Office Anna Stelmaszczyk-Świerczyńska, Chief Accountant Katarzyna Brzózka and Deputy Director of the Maritime Office for Investment Barbara Olczyk. On the part of the consortium of FABE Polska Sp. z o.o. and Przedsiębiorstwo Robót Czerpalnych i Podwody Sp. z o.o., the contract was signed by President Fatih Budan and Proxy Zbigniew Barański.

This strategic investment from the point of view of the further development of the port would not have been possible without the involvement and cooperation of the national maritime administration bodies represented by the Maritime Office in Gdynia and the equipment operated by the experienced hydrotechnical staff of the Dredging and and Underwater Work Company. Despite its complexity and large scale, all work carried out by our company was carried out efficiently. The ambitious scope of work included the deepening of nearly 3.7km of the fairway to a technical depth of 17m and a width of 280m measured at the bottom. In parallel with the main work -the task included searching the bottom of the dredged basin, excavating sunken ferromagnetic objects and other objects dangerous to navigation. Periodic surveys and monitoring of the progress of the key stages of the work were carried out. The sand obtained as dredged material was used to reinforce the beaches in Babi Doły, Mechelinki. In the case of the beaches in Rewa, the refull was transported by the ships of the PRCiP’s green-yellow fleet and, thanks to our consortium’s refullers, the sand was fed to a designated section of the coast. The investment abounded in additional engineering works such as the repair of the northern and southern heads of the breakwater. As part of the renovation, foundation works were carried out with steel sheet piling in the form of driven steel pipes and piles filled with reinforced concrete plug and sand. In the surface part, a reinforced concrete cap, a slab of the quay’s surface with complete mooring equipment were made. The whole was tied together by electrical work and the construction of lighting. As part of the main project, repairs were carried out to navigation signs and entrance light lanterns, as well as the provision of new navigation buoys. The main dredging work on behalf of the PRCiP was carried out by the dredgers Łęgowski and Wenda. The dredgers Kraken, Małż II and Swidrak were involved in the sub-dredging work prior to the sheet piling. The latter unit was also involved in taking up navigation obstacles and setting navigation buoys. Work on the assemblies was supplemented by vessels: Marcel, Bodo, Hektor and Anusia. The work was carried out from February 2022 to November 2023.

The depth is to be 17 meters. This is where the new Gryfa’s dock, which will be numbered eight, is to submerge. Doraco is to build the new Gdynia Wharf, which is to be 300 meters long. Along this wharf will be a dock and a 60-meter-long pier to which it will be moored. The pier is to be an extension of the shipyard’s Gdansk Wharf. The new dock is to be 235 meters long and 47 wide. The project is expected to be completed in the middle of the year. It will be one of the largest docks in the Baltic.