POLAND’s planned new high-speed railway between Warsaw and Łódź has cleared a major hurdle as its first phase has passed the mandatory environmental review. Central Communication Port (CPK), which has overall responsibility for the project, will now issue a tender for the construction of a 4.6km double-track railway tunnel beneath Łódź, Poland’s fourth-largest city.
The new railway is intended to serve Warsaw’s new airport, which is also part of the overall CPK project, and is expected to be completed in time for the airport’s opening in 2027. It will halve the travel time between Warsaw and Łódź, as well as improve connections with Poland’s third city, Wroclaw, and the EU’s TEN-T North Sea - Baltic Sea corridor.
The project was in jeopardy in the wake of the October general election, as the new prime minister, Mr Donald Tusk, had previously suggested that the size and scale of the CPK project needed to be reviewed. However, with €64m in funding from the EU and now environmental approval, the project only requires a building permit and the completion of other administrative procedures to move ahead.
“I am leaving the CPK project with assured financing until 2030, with a selected minority investor for the airport and with EU funding for the railway part of the project,” says Mr Marcin Horała, Poland’s outgoing deputy minister of funds and regional policy. “Work in the field is already underway: in the area of the airport junction and at the tunnel in Łódź.”
The work that has begun includes underpinning Łódź Cultural Centre near Łódź Fabryczna station, under a Zlotys 93m ($US 23.5m) contract awarded to by Keller Polska, while Budimex has won the Zlotys 147m contract to construct the launch chambers for the TBMs.
Meanwhile, the environmental review for the second stage of the line is underway, CPK says.
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