The Polish Geological Institute and the CPK signed a cooperation agreement in the planning, design and construction of the airport and related railway and road investments. It includes, among others, participation in site surveys and specialist consultancy in the subsoil investigation.
The substantive support of the Polish Geological Institute – National Research Institute (PIG-PIB) will first and foremost concern the scope of engineering geology, hydrogeology and subsoil survey. The PIG–PIB performs the tasks of the state geological service and the state hydrogeological service in Poland.
The Agreement between CPK and PIG-PIB is an announcement of substantive cooperation which must translate into a quick progressof works at this important infrastructure project
The aim of the cooperation is to consult and select high-quality test methods, as well as to optimise the standard of site surveys to be performed by the contractors. CPK and PIG–PIB undertook to appoint a working team to implement the arrangements provided for in the agreement.
The PIG–PIB consultancy will be necessary already during the preparation stage of the assumptions for cooperation with the site survey advisor for the preparation of the CPK Airport Master Plan. The task of the site survey contractor will be to prepare, in cooperation with CPK, among others, the input to the geological and geophysical documentation, maps for design purposes, assessment of the technical condition of civil structures, archaeological surveys and unexploded ordnance survey.
The CPK is not only an airport, but an entire transport system that will revolutionise travelling in Poland. We are preparing an infrastructure project with a total value of capital expenditures exceeding PLN 100 billion. In order to ensure efficient implementation, extensive cooperation with experts in their fields is necessary, and such experts are provided by the PIG–PIB.
We have over a century of experience, expertise and outstanding experts in engineering geology, hydrogeology and geohazards. We will effectively advise which geological factors should be taken into account in the process of planning, preparing and implementing the investment and will help to interpret the geological data obtained during the works.
The Agreement shall be valid throughout the period of the CPK investment. According to the programmes presented by the CPK company in June this year, the launch of the first stage of the airport (two runways with the necessary infrastructure, which will enable to handle up to 45 million passengers per year) is expected asat the end of 2027. The CPK railway investments were planned for the years 2020-2034, with a part of the sections to be ready upon launching the airport operation.
It is yet another cooperation agreement signed by the CPK company with the state-owned entities. In March 2020, the CPK and the General Directorate for National Roads and Motorways (GDDKiA) concluded an agreement concerning the coordination of the investment, including e.g. extension of the A2 motorway at the Warsaw-Łódź section and construction of the Warsaw Metropolitan Area Ring Road. CPK also cooperates, among others, with the Instituteof Meteorology and Water Management (IMGW), obtaining from it the data necessary for planning the airport.
The CPK company is currently conducting a competitive dialogue with the SeoulIncheon and TokyoNarita airports, which will result in the selection of a strategic adviser this year. In the airport part of the project, there is being conducted, among others, a procedure aimed at selecting a technical consultant for the Master Plan (a study specifying, among others, the detailed parameters of the airport, the investment area, dimensions and location of infrastructure elements, traffic forecasts, construction staging plan and the development concept of the land around the airport).
In the railway part of the project, the company, among others, completes the analysis of comments and opinions as part of the nationwide consultations on the railway and road Strategic Location Study (SLS). Preparations for nature inventories are in progress for the sections of railway lines which will be executed first and for which the first construction works are to start in 2023.
The amendment to the Regulation on the list of railway lines of national importance of April 17, 2013 adopted yesterday by the government includes all connections the construction of which results from the Concept of preparation and implementation of the CPK adopted by the government on November 7, 2017. Details of the CPK Railway Program were presented by the Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland Mateusz Morawiecki in the afternoon at the conference at the Łódź Fabryczna station.
The railway part of the CPK Program assumes the construction of 1600 km of new lines from 10 directions to CPK and Warsaw. They will connect the voivodship cities with the capital of Poland and CPK, as well as with each other. They will also ensure the coherence of the national railway network. As part of the zerostage, which should be ready before the CPK Port achieves operational capacity, 140 km of new lines will be constructed: mainly on the Warsaw – CPK – Łódź route. This investment will enable to achieve the travel time from the CPK to Warsaw of 15 minutes and from the CPK to Łódź of approx. 25 minutes.
We are starting to implement very specific plans. Poland has the chance to become the economic center of Central Europe, and CPK, as the largest hub in the business region, the heart of this area
It is time to give Polish railways a new impulse for development. We want the inhabitants of all regions in Poland, from towns and villages, to have equal access to the railway so that they can travel comfortably to every part of the country. These investments will ensure the backbone of the transport system of the State. I do not hesitate to say that the CPK is an epochal project
The adoption of new provisions will facilitate investment processes under the CPK Railway Program in the future. The total length of the lines of national importance, i.e. justified by economic, social, ecological or defense considerations, the construction of which results from the CPK Concept, is more than 1600 km. Their exact length will be known after completion of conceptual and design works.
The regulation adopted today by the government included the entire planned railway network indicated in the CPK concept, in the list of lines of national importance. This shows how important and universal investment the CPK is. This will not only be a modern hub airport, which is much-needed in Poland and in this part of Europe, but thanks to railway investments also the project which will help to communicate better Poland as a whole
The Deputy Minister gave examples for cities which today are white spots in transport and which are expected to be easier to get to thanks to the CPK investments. These include, among others: Płock, Grudziądz, Łomża, Ostrołęka, Busko Zdrój and Jastrzębie-Zdrój.
This regulation is a milestone on the road towards the implementation of the CPK Railway Program. The benefits of railway investments are undeniable. From over 100 Polish cities, we will be able to get directly to CPK Airport and Warsaw within no more than 2.5 hours. The tasks carried out under the CPK Railway Program will enable us to work for sustainable transport in Poland. Today, it is characterized by insufficient railway development and is based excessively on road infrastructure
The adoption of the regulation was preceded by reorganization of the line network indicated in the CPK Concept, assigningthem numbers and determination of the starting and end points. Each of the 10 railway “spokes” leading to the CPK will consist of newsections of the network and repaired or modernized parts of the existing infrastructure. For the purposes of construction of this railway system, investment tasks were divided between CPK which is responsible for construction of new routes, and PKP PLK, which is responsible for modernization of the existing ones. This is the first program for construction of new railway lines in Poland in over 30 years.
High-speed railway sections and spokes leading to the CPK will make the network more coherent and better used. A Multi-Annual CPK Program is under preparation, it will specify what specific airport, railway and road investments will be carried out as part of the CPK operation and what financing will be needed in the subsequent years.
The total length of railway lines in Poland is now over 19 thousand km. Since the early 1990s, more than 5 thousand km of the lines have been dismantled. New investments are needed because railway routes have not been built in Poland on a large scale since the 1980s when the Metallurgy – Sulfur line and previously the Central Trunk Line were completed.