Polish inland waterways in progress

The debate over the navigability of the Vistula river and other Polish rivers continues, as the management of the port of Gdańsk has announced a tender for the feasibility study.
Polish inland waterways in progress

Port of Gdansk, Poland (magro_kr, CC BY-NC-ND)

According to Polish “Infrastructure Market” portal, the goal is to modernize the international waterways from Warsaw to Belarus and the stretch of the Vistula to the port of Elbląg and the cut across the Vistula lagoon. There are four competitors but the results of the tender has not yet been announced.

The background

Poland’s President, Andrzej Duda signed the memorandum of understanding of the European Union AGN (Main Inland Waterways of International Importance) convention in 2017. This was the conclusion of a process that began in 2016 with the perspective to 2030. The main goal of the EU strategy is to change 30 per cent of road transportation into railways and waterways. To achieve it Poland has to regulate entirely the Oder river, and the Vistula river from Warsaw to Gdańsk. Furthermore Poland will be obliged to bring up all navigable inland waterways to class IV standard for units (barges) and for 240 days in the year.

Three major waterways will flow through Poland. The E40 from Gdańsk to the River Bug and then to Odessa, the E30 from Swinoujście along the Oder to Bratislava on the Danube and the E70 from the Oder to the Vistula estuary. The memorandum also makes the development of the ports of Gdańsk and Gdynia and Świnoujście-Szczeciń a priority.

The Minister of Development, Jerzy Kwieciński stated in December 2017 that the aim of the government is to increase the share of freight from the current 0.5 per cent to 10 per cent.

The feasibility study

There were several terms of reference: to investigate the technical parameters, estimate the investment levels and to find potential financing. Also it has to gauge the demand for freight and passenger traffic on the inland waterways system, conduct a cost benefit analysis of the project and analyse the social and demographic consequences.

The potential works are on a vast scale. It is estimated that on the lower Vistula there are 2912 river spurs of which 70 per cent will have to be repaired, building weirs of 4-5 steps, as well as arising the height of three road bridges by 0.06-1,73 meters. Costs estimates (in 2011 prices) are PLN55bn and another PLN40bn to link the Vistula and Bug rivers. According to an academic at the University of Gdańsk, Professor Krystyna Wojewódzka-Król, for every PLN1 invested it could bring in PLN6 of profits.

The government estimates an outlay of PLN60-150bn for all three waterways. But this amount will be spread out over many years and must be seen against other government projects, such as modernising roads (which would cost PLN135bn), railway tracks (PLN60bn) and the Central Communications Hub, the joint airport and rail centre (PLN30bn).

The first stage could handle 7-8 million tons annually, and after the second stage is completed 12 million tons. EU funding could be obtain but first Poland needs to invest its own funds. The plan is to construct two riverine ports – one in Warsaw and the other downstream in Bydgoszcz. The latter is already working but will have to be expanded. As a result Gdańsk would have road, rail and river links to its expanding port facilities.

The future is not clear

There has already appeared some criticism of the scheme and the rationale of using river transport. Professor Włodzimierz Rydzkowski, the University of Gdańsk, stated that it is too late, and too expensive to modernize infrastructure that has been allowed to decay since the 1980s. The costs may far outweigh the benefits. Road and rail transport is quicker and cheaper.

He continued that inland waterway transport is good only for local traffic since the average length of navigable waterway is 20 km. There is only one intermodal terminal in the Silesian Logistical Centre in Gliwice, over 40 others are centred on land close to the biggest industrial centres. According to Mr. Rydzykowski there is only one realistic option, and that is the lower Oder from Szczecin to the Hawela Canal thence to Berlin.

Piotr Pawłowski of the Baltic Grain Terminal (BTZ) in Gdynia says: “The problem is comparing the Oder and Vistula with the mighty rivers of western Europe, such as the Rhine and Elbe.” At the end of their particular courses lie the greatest ports in Europe: Rotterdam, Antwerp and Hamburg. In Germany, 75 per cent of logistics centres are built by rivers, including the great industrial centres. Duisburg for instance, handles 4 million TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit, the dimensions of a container) annually, over twice the tonnage of all Polish coastal ports. On the Rhine, barges ferry 210 TEU at one go to Hamburg; on the Vistula this is 40 TEU, he stated.

Pawłowski added that BTZ was indifferent to the method of transportation to the port, this depended on the carrier anyway. Since the port handles 1 million tons annually there is plenty of room for riverine suppliers. But he remains sceptical “Inland waterway traffic will never have the same scale as in western Europe, the costs of entry into the infrastructure are so high that investments may prove unrealistic”.

Jacek Dubicki, of the Port of Gdańsk says the project must work and will work if the government puts more effort by puting the entire infrastructure in place first, then the profits and revenues.

Port of Gdansk, Poland (magro_kr, CC BY-NC-ND)

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