The navigable canal through the Vistula Spit, which connected the Baltic Sea with the Vistula Bay and will allow ships to enter the Polish port of Elblong, bypassing the Kaliningrad region of the Russian Federation, is ready for opening. The workers had only a small amount of work to do on the site.
Gospodarka morska writes about it.
“We are at the finish line, the reception is ongoing, the contractor will hand over the entire object to us at any moment,” said Vyacheslav Piotszkovskiy, director of the Maritime Administration of Gdynia.
At the moment, work is being completed on the breakwaters, where protective X-blocks are being laid, and there is also a small amount of tasks for cosmetic cleaning on individual reinforced concrete structures.
As noted by Bartosz Zablotskyi, the head of hydrotechnical works of the NDI/Besix consortium (contractor), all the main works both in the protective port and in the shipping channel itself have been completed to the extent that it is already possible to introduce the movement of ships.
The opening of the canal is scheduled for September 17 – the 83rd anniversary of the invasion of Poland by Soviet troops in 1939.
Work on the Vistula spit began in October 2019. The first stage of this investment has now been completed. After the completion of the entire project, the shipping channel will allow vessels with a draft of up to 4.5 m, a length of up to 100 m and a width of up to 20 m to enter the port of Elblong. For this, it will be necessary, in particular, to carry out dredging of the Elblong River.
