Five bids have been submitted for the construction of the longest railway tunnel in Poland. The project is said to be part of a new high-speed connection to the major transport hub and airport known as Centralny Port Komunikacyjny (CPK).
The tender involves constructing the tunnel from the ‘Retkinia’ chamber to the ‘Fabryczna’ chamber, along with the infrastructure needed for the tunnel, chambers, and railway line. The tunnel will primarily serve high-speed trains travelling between three major Polish cities: Warsaw, Wrocław, and Poznań.
CPK has allocated US $702.72mn gross for the project. The lowest bid was $519.84mn gross, while the highest was gross $675.44mn.
“This is an exceptionally ambitious undertaking, as the Łódź tunnel will have the largest diameter of any underground structure built to date using the TBM method in Poland. It will also be the longest tunnel constructed as a single section,” said Deputy Minister of Infrastructure and CPK Government Commissioner, Maciej Lasek.
The awarded contractor is expected to complete the project within 46 months of signing the contract, anticipated to take place in the second half of 2025. Tunnel drilling is set to commence in the fourth quarter of 2026 and is expected to be completed by the third quarter of 2028.
The entire section of line 85 between Warsaw and Łódź is scheduled to be operational by 2032, coinciding with the opening of the new national airport. Once completed, the train journey between the two cities will be reduced to approximately 40 minutes.