HOCHTIEF Polska, partner in the consortium HOCHTIEF Construction AG Infrastructure Polska Sp. j., and DCT Gdansk S.A. signed a contract in London for the construction of the Deep-sea Container Terminal Gdansk (DCT) in the Northern Port in Gdansk, Poland. The partners in the consortium are HOCHTIEF Construction AG Civil Engineering and Marine Works (the worldwide renowned competence centre for Marine Construction of HOCHTIEF) and HOCHTIEF Polska.
The design of DCT can be considered unique not only due to its area and the number of personnel to be employed on its construction but also due to the special nature of the land on which the terminal is to be built.
The terminal will be built on an artificially formed solid pier measuring 800 m in length beyond the existing coastline and 315 m in width. DCT will have the area of 44 ha, which makes it the largest construction site HOCHTIEF Polska has ever operated on. Two container reloading stations will be built: - the first section of the quay will be 385 m long and the water depth at it will be 16,5 m, - the other section will be 265 m long and will have 13,5 m water depth. This section will be additionally ended with a ramp for Ro-Ro ship handling.
Consequently, the terminal will be able to receive Panamax vessels – the largest type of ships that enter the Baltic Sea.
The construction of DCT requires cooperation of a large group of experienced partners, including the largest Polish hydroengineering companies and local subcontractors and suppliers, as well as Dutch and German companies using specialized equipment and possessing the indispensable expertise. At the peak of the working schedule there will be over 400 staff working on the project.
One of the key stages of work is the preparation of the land for the future terminal. The work to be done is unusual not only due to the necessity to search the area for unexploded shells from the Second World War but also due to the historical artifacts frequently discovered in the ground: - In the course of the preparation work we have done so far we discovered a piece of a 19th century anchor lift and a 17th century smoking pipe. We notified the Polish Maritime Museum about those discoveries – said Piotr Suss, Project Manager. – The findings will undergo the necessary conservation treatment and will be exhibited to the public in the Polish Maritime Museum in Gdansk. The construction work will involve moving approx. 5 million cubic metres of sea bottom soil and constructing approx. 2 km of steel watertight walls. It will be the first case of use of high corrosion resistance steel beams of such enormous size in Poland. The project includes the construction of transport routes and a railway line, each 2 km in length.
The work on that impressive construction site will take 25 months to complete and is planned to end in November 2007.