In the port of Szczecin, in the Dębicki Canal, two new quays are being built – Norweskie and Duńskie (Stage I). In turn, the existing Czeskie and Słowackie ones are undergoing thorough modernization. The Dębicki Canal itself is also being widened and deepened. All this as part of the investment "Improving access to the port of Szczecin in the area of the Dębicki Canal". The aim of these activities is to double the number of handled loads and improve the quality of their service.

The Szczecin and Świnoujście Seaports Authority SA informed about the progress of work under the investment at a special press conference. It was attended by Deputy Minister of Infrastructure Marek Gróbarczyk and Members of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland Leszek Dobrzyński and Artur Szałabawka.

Work is in full swing

The work is currently almost 70 percent complete. Work on the Czeskie and Słowackie quays was divided into four stages. The modernization of the first stage of the Czeskie quay is nearing completion, where all planned steel piles to strengthen the quay have already been driven into the ground, and reinforced concrete and track works have been completed. On the other side of the Canal, construction of a new Norweskie wharf is underway. This is where two new quays will be built: Norweskie and Duńskie, with a total length of 1,000 meters. The entire sheet pile wall has already been installed on the Norweskie quay, 300 meters long, and on the Duńskie quay (stage I), approximately 778 meters long. A large silting field is also being created on the island of Ostrów Mieleński in Szczecin. This is where most of the spoil from the deepening of the Dębicki Canal to 12.5 meters will go. Approximately 1,000,000 cubic meters of excavated material will be deposited in this field. Dredging works are ongoing. To ensure communication to Ostrów Mieleński, a pontoon bridge was specially built and a pipeline approximately 3 km long was laid to transport spoil from dredging works.

The port will double the amount of cargo handled

Thanks to the investment, the port of Szczecin will accept ships with cargo of up to 50,000 tons in holds, which will double the amount of cargo currently handled. This will increase the port's competitiveness on the Baltic port market. Above all, as a result of the widening and deepening of the Dębicki Canal, the safety of ship traffic in this port area will significantly improve.

Scope of work

As part of the investment, nearly 1,000 meters of the Czeskie and Słowackie quays will be rebuilt, along with the modernization of the technical infrastructure in the immediate back of the quays and adapting them to a technical depth of 12.5 m.

On the island of Ostrów Grabowski, the contractor will also build over 1,080 meters of completely new Norweskie and Duńskie quays. As part of the project, the Dębicki Canal will be widened to 200 m (currently 120 m) and deepened to 12.5 m. In turn, the so-called the concrete mattress will strengthen the bottom of the Canal in the area of the Spółdzielcze, Fińskie and Czeskie quays and protect them against the movement of ships' propellers. A spoil disposal field will be constructed on the island of Ostrów Mieleński. This is where, as well as in the spoil disposal fields in Ostrów Grabowski, which are being reconstructed under another contract, the spoil extracted during dredging works will be stored. Approximately 1.5 million m3 will be available for development.

The project "Improving access to the port of Szczecin in the area of the Dębicki Canal" is co-financed by the European Union from the Cohesion Fund under the Infrastructure and Environment operational program. The cost of the work is PLN 343.1 million. The investor of the project is the Szczecin and Świnoujście Seaports Authority, the contractor is the Sopot company NDI, and the project is supervised by SWECO.

Trivia:
The total length of sheet pile walls is 40 km.
Total length of steel pipes – 20 km.
The amount of excavated material extracted from the bottom of the Dębicki Canal would fill the newly built Pogoń Stadium in Szczecin four times or the National Stadium one and a half times.
Reinforcement (ribbed and straight bars), the number of tons of reinforcement (1,600 tons) is equal to the weight of 73 Rosomak armored personnel carriers.
Structural concrete, the designed amount of m3 of concrete would allow the construction of Jasne Błonia in Szczecin with a layer of concrete 0.30 m thick.