The company Centralny Port Komunikacyjny signed a contract on Tuesday for the project of a 4-kilometer high-speed tunnel west of the Łódź Fabryczna station. It is the first of the CTH investments to enter the design phase and have an environmental decision. The tunnel will be a key part of the railway route that will connect Warsaw with Łódź, Poznań and Wrocław – the company boasts in a press release.
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Almost PLN 60 million for the project
The contract provides for the execution of a construction design as well as the necessary studies and administrative decisions for the tunnel and railway line with accompanying infrastructure. The contract was concluded with a consortium of Metroprojekt and SUD Architekt Polska, and its value is PLN 59.8 million net.
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Beginning of underground works is planned in 2023 at the Łódź Fabryczna station, where high-speed trains will stop. The tunnel will be used by long-distance trains, especially high-speed trains.
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See also: Construction of the CPK. How many people will lose their homes, land and businesses? Horała replies
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“This is an element of the so-called spokes No. 9, i.e. the new railway route from Warsaw through the CPK, Łódź and Sieradz, and further to Wrocław and Poznań. The planned tunnel will be over four kilometers long” – reads the CPK release.
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As described by the company, the tunnel exits to the surface to the south-west of Łódź Kaliska, in the vicinity of the Retkinia estate and the existing railway line No. 14. Then the route will lead west – towards Sieradz, behind which there will be a fork towards Poznań and Wrocław. This way the entire line will form a “Y” shape.
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– The tunnel will be an important element of the so-called spokes No. 9, which will connect the city to the high-speed rail system. It will provide passengers with attractive travel times, e.g. from Łódź to Warsaw in 45 minutes (currently over an hour), and from Łódź to Wrocław and Poznań in 1 hour. 10 minutes (now almost 3.5 hours) – says Deputy Minister of Infrastructure Marcin Horała, government plenipotentiary for CPK.
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– The tunnel in Łódź is the most advanced investment task under the CPK Program, and today’s event brings us closer to driving the first shovel. The study work has already covered a total of approximately 1,000 km of planned railway lines in various parts of Poland. These are routes for which nature inventories are being carried out and technical, economic and environmental studies are being prepared – says Mikołaj Wild, president of the CPK company.
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For the execution of this construction project, the CPK company received funding from the EU CEF instrument (“Connecting Europe Facility”). Almost 30 percent of the tunnel was sold. funds allocated to Poland in the last CEF 2014-2020 competition, i.e. nearly PLN 60 million of funding.
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In order to accelerate the work, the CPK company concluded an agreement with PKP PLK, which years ago was developing the concept of the Warsaw-Łódź-Poznań / Wrocław high-speed line (i.e. the so-called igreka) and obtained a decision on environmental conditions and consent for the implementation of the project. Those works were suspended by PLK in 2012. – The use of these studies, of course after necessary changes and updates, saves a lot of time and public money – emphasizes Mikołaj Wild.
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The second tunnel will handle local traffic
The CPK tunnel is not the only underground railway crossing in Łódź. PKP PLK is building a tunnel for agglomeration traffic in this city.
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