A 30 day delay has been announced for the completion of the tunnel under the Świną River in between the islands of Uznam and Wolin in Świnoujściu (Poland).

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the contractors PORR and GÜLERMAK had asked for 119 days of postponement for the completion date taking the date from September 17, 2022 to January 15, 2023. They have been granted for 30 days without question but for further postponement they have the support the delay with documents.

The delay is directly related to the late delivery of the tunnel boring machine as a result of COVID-19 restrictions. During lockdown CREG factory was not working in full capacity and as a result, TBM arrived in Poland end October 2020, instead of original date of 31 July 2020. Then the contractors say, there was 25 days of delay because of bad weather after TBM arrived in the wrong season.

The Mayor's office released the following announcement:

Swinoujscie. Through COVID-19. Delay in the construction of the tunnel under Świną.

For now, the deadline for completing the construction of the tunnel between the islands of Uznam and Wolin in Świnoujście has been postponed by 30 days.

It is possible, however, that there will be more shifts. The contractor explains the COVID-19 delay and wants to postpone the deadline by more than 100 days.
It will be the longest underwater tunnel in Poland. Its contractor is the consortium of PORR - Gülermak companies. The investment is 85 percent financed from EU funds. The rest is contributed by the Świnoujście City Commune, which is the Investor, from its budget.

The substitute investor is GDDKiA, the Szczecin branch. The contract for the construction of the tunnel in the design and build formula was signed by the City of Świnoujście with the contractor on September 17, 2018. According to it, construction was to be completed within four years.

In the application submitted to the Investor at the end of last year, the contractor PORR-Gülermak proposed to postpone the completion date by 119 days, i.e. from September 17, 2022 to January 15, 2023.

The reason was the COVID-19 pandemic, which delayed the production of the TBM boring machine, and thus its delivery to Świnoujście and the start of assembly at the construction site. A total of 95 days.

- In the key period for the timely delivery of TBM to the construction site, the production of CREG production plants (where TBM was built, editorial note) was completely suspended, and in the less unfavorable period for human health and life, it was limited to 25% - we read in the tunnel contractor's application. - This circumstance is directly related to the cause and effect of the inability to produce TBM and, consequently, to deliver it to the construction site in Poland within the time limit consistent with the concluded contract, i.e. until July 31, 2020 (the machine arrived in Świnoujście at the beginning of October 2020, ed.)
The next 25 days of delay - according to the contractor - were determined by the weather conditions, which had an impact on the assembly of the machine in the starting chamber.

Ultimately, the Investor, the Świnoujście City Commune, after consultations with the Project Manager and Contract Engineer, considered the extension of the deadline by 30 days as indisputable.

- The remaining period requested by the Contractor, in accordance with the recommendation of the Substitute Investor, requires supplementing the documentation that would confirm that the Contractor actually had no influence on it - says Barbara Michalska, 1st Deputy Mayor of Świnoujście.

The Świnoujście tunnel is 3.2 kilometers long, of which almost 1.5 kilometers is a tunnel drilled by a TBM machine (along with sections made with the use of roofing methods, the entire tunnel will be almost 1.8 km long).

In its deepest place, it is about 24 meters below the water level of the Świna Strait and 10 meters below its bottom.

Text: BIK UM Świnoujście

Jaroslaw Jaz

Spokesperson for the Mayor of Świnoujście

https://tu.swinoujscie.pl/2022/01/12/swinoujscie-przez-covid-19-opoznienie-w-budowie-tunelu-pod-swina/