The Sucharski Route - agreement between the PGA SA and the City of Gdansk

07.12.2006

The possibility of taking advantage of the European Union funds has opened up a unique opportunity for Gdansk to make up for decades of backlog in areas such as infrastructure, among other things. Effectiveness in acquiring these funds has become a positive distinguishing feature among other regions across Poland. One of the examples of effectiveness in this area is the cooperation between the Municipality and the Port of Gdansk Authority SA. Over the last few years, cooperative efforts focused on measures that were implemented on the premises of the port under the Sectoral Operational Programme - Transport (covering the area of the Port Free Zone, Westerplatte Ferry Terminal and the Przemyslowe Quay) as well as on the modernization of Marynarki Polskiej Street.

As the implementation of these tasks is due to completion in 2007, measures aimed at introducing further projects into the 2007-2013 EU budget gain special significance. Besides the construction of a railway bridge leading to the Northern Port over the Dead Vistula River, from the Port of Gdansk as well as the municipal and regional point of view, the priority importance lies with a project involving the construction of Sucharski Route. On Wednesday, 6 December 2006, at the City Hall in Gdansk, an agreement was signed on cooperation between the City of Gdansk and the Port of Gdansk Authority SA regarding the implementation of this project. The agreement was signed by Pawel Adamowicz - City Mayor of Gdansk, and Stanislaw Cora - President of the Board of PGA SA and Marian Switek - Vice-President of the Board of PGA SA.

Within the boundaries of the city of Gdansk, the projected Sucharski Route runs from the south-east towards the north-west, thus providing efficient connection between the city regions located near the shore and the outer road network of the Gdansk Bay Metropolis. Additionally, the Sucharski Route constitutes part of a major inner traffic network within the city of Gdansk.

Concurrently, the Sucharski Route is located within the system of international transportation networks that represent the future extension of the European Union Trans-European Transportation Network:

• Corridor 1A (Riga - Kaliningrad - Gdansk) forming a branch of Corridor 1 (Helsinki - Warsaw),
• Corridor 6 (Gdansk - Katowice - Zylina).

The Sucharski Route will be a dual carriageway with two lanes in either direction and with restricted access only in split crossing areas with roads and streets in the transverse layout.

While included in the regional and municipal transportation networks, the Sucharski Route comprises part of the following transportation routes:

• within the regional system, through the planned connection with the South Ring Road (as a section of the S7 Gdansk - Warsaw express road) it provides connection between the port grounds and the A1 Motorway that is currently under construction as an extension of the Tricity Ring Road (express road S6). This will enable:
  • building up a multi-modal transportation hub at the Gdansk Port, thus connecting motorways of the sea in the South Baltic area with the trans-European road network,
  • diverting the heavy duty and transit traffic from the city centre in the east direction (i.e. towards Warsaw and Elblag), in the south direction (Bydgoszcz, Torun, Lodz, Katowice) and towards the west (Slupsk, Koszalin).
• within the municipal system, through the planned connection provided by the routes of "Green Road" and "Nowa Spacerowa" with the western Tricity Ring Road along with the aforementioned Gdansk Southern Ring Road will form so-called Gdansk primary "transportation framework" which, upon completion and modernization of transverse connections with the Tricity Ring Road, will significantly reduce the traffic load on Gdansk major thoroughfare (Zwyciestwa Av. - Grunwaldzka Av.) that has currently reached its maximum operational capacity.

Servicing the area of the eastern port in Gdansk is becoming of particular importance as, apart from the coal, fuels and LPG terminals already operating in the Northern Port, a deepsea container terminal is currently under construction with a distribution and logistics centre envisaged for future development as a natural - from a transport logistics standpoint - supplement to a container terminal. Undoubtedly, the Sucharski Route provides the Port of Gdansk with a powerful argument in view of the currently developed analyses regarding the location options for the LNG terminal.

The construction of the Sucharski Route has been listed among the priority maritime transportation investment projects under the Operational Programme "Infrastructure and the Environment". However, in order to take the final shape, the programme requires that a decision be made and approval granted by the Council of Ministers.

The parties to the agreement expect that the project be jointly implemented in phases such as project programming, construction, monitoring and payoff of the project. The Port of Gdansk Authority SA will assume the role of a partner to the project and will be held responsible for developing the overall documentation necessary to file an application for co-financing from the EU funds. The City of Gdansk will develop, among other things, a feasibility study for the Sucharski Route and an environmental impact assessment of the project. It will also obtain decisions on environmental requirements for the approval of the project implementation.