COWI is in the process of modernising a section of Polish railway 500 km or so in length that forms an important corridor for goods and passenger traffic. The section is part of the E30 rail corridor, stretching from the German border through Wroclaw, Opole Katowice and Kracow to the Ukrainian frontier.
Modernisation of the E30 involves one of the sections to which the EU has chosen to grant financial support. There will be two contracts worth a total of EUR 5.6m. One of the rail sections forms an extension of the other, and together they will constitute COWI's biggest foreign railway assignment to date—in terms of both value and scope.
"These projects will give us a foothold in Poland, where there is great potential for renovating the large number of worn out railway tracks," says Preben Juul Mikkelsen, Head of Department at COWI. COWI will carry out the work in collaboration with three Polish companies and COWI's German subsidiary ETC for PKP Polskie Linie Kolejowe S.A. Both sections will be modernised to enable future goods trains to travel up to 120 kph, while passenger trains can go up to 160 kph.
The remit for one assignment is to draw up a feasibility study for the section between Kracow and Medyka on the Ukrainian border. Part of the analysis work will consist of recording the present state of the railways. After that, a forecast will need to be made of future passenger and goods traffic, and cost/benefit analyses of various scenarios. Based on these analyses, the project most advantageous in financial terms will be selected and an environmental assessment drawn up together with tender documents for a contractors' tender.
The second section, which runs from Opole to Kracow, is more complicated, passing through major industrial and urban areas. The assignment is analogous to the Kracow-Medyka section, but owing to the major urban areas involved, greater consideration must be shown to neighbours living close to the railway. At the same time, there used to be mining along a substantial part of the section. One of COWI’s tasks will therefore be to record the mines and investigate their impact on the railway. By Christina Tækker, cht@cowi.com Published: 26.04.2006