Consultant Day & Johnson is working on a major port project aimed at providing Russia with a year-round link to the sea.

The cost of the scheme has gone up from an original E175m (£117.4m) to E200m. The facility in Poland aims to service a range of countries to the East that are either landlocked or reliant on ports blocked by ice in winter, such as Germany and the Czech Republic.

The scheme will create a new shipping terminal at Gdansk on the Baltic, which does not freeze and has no tides.

Terry Rogers, head of Day & Johnson in Poland, said: “This could become a very big hub very fast. It’s perfect for products intended to go either south or east. The port will eventually threaten Rotterdam and Hamburg, which are already over-stretched.”

It is believed the increase in cost is due to additional equipment being ordered. The construction cost is E116m, with the remainder of costs going on equipment.

Rogers added that the scheme was ahead of schedule. The project was to take two years and it has been on site for one year. The first cranes for the terminal are arriving in March 2007 and the first ship is due in June, even before final completion. After the project is completed the UK client behind the scheme, DCT Gdansk, is to consider embarking on a second project to double the size of the terminal, depending on demand.

The new port will eventually threaten Hamburg and Rotterdam

Phil Day, Day & Johnson

The project team celebrated reaching the end of the pier on 4 October. The distance from the port’s entry gate to the end of the pier is 1km. Day & Johnson is providing QSing, Dutch firm Royal Haskoning is the project manager and the contractor is Germany-headquartered Hochtief.

DCT Gdansk has four private British investors, including the company’s president James Sutcliffe, who is also chairman of shipping agent John Sutcliffe & Son. The project is being funded by a number of banks, which are putting up E150. The port authority is contributing E20m of the total cost to cover infrastructure works.

The project includes the construction of a pier, which reclaims land, effectively increasing the size of Poland by 30ha. It also involves rail and road links. The first E200m phase has a capacity to handle 500,000 teus.

Day & Johnson has been involved with the project since its inception some four years ago.

Source

QS News