The Port of Gdansk has said that key projects within the largest investment programme in its history, covering €1.3 billion (US$1.58 billion) of infrastructure investments, will be completed in 2021.
Port authority president Łukasz Greinke said the investments focus on the inner port and outer port areas and are expected to expand the facility's cargo handling capacity to more than 60 million tonnes within five years.
Mr Greinke said the inner port investment is valued at €125 million (US$151.8 million) and is focused on the modernisation of the fairway as well as the expansion of quays and the improvement of navigation conditions in the inner port. The total length of the modernised quays will be almost five kilometres while the fairway will be seven kilometres.
Dredging works and the partial reconstruction of the quays are carried out on a section of approximately seven kilometres, from the entrance heads to the inner port to the turning basin at Polski Hak, behind the Kashubian Canal.
Mr Greinke said another important investment in the inner port of more than €43 million (US$52.2 million), also due to complete in the second half 2021, is the reconstruction of the Dworzec Drzewny Quay. This quay will then become a transshipment quay, enabling it to receive much larger ships bringing them right into the inner port.
Mr Greinke added that the investments in Gdansk's inner and outer ports will also help facilitate the development of plans for a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) LNG terminal in the Bay of Gdansk to be built in partnership between the Port of Gdansk, Polish state-owned gas pipeline operator Gas System, and the Maritime Office in Gdynia.