Poland plans to build an island in the Baltic Sea
Poland plans to build an artificial island with an area of more than 18 hectares in the Vistula Lagoon also known as Kaliningrad Gulf, Polish newspaper Onet reported with a reference to the government tender documents.
The island will be built in Poland's territorial waters in the Vistula Lagoon in Poland. The island will be made from the soil that will be extracted during the construction of the navigable channel going through the Vistula Spit (Baltiyskaya Kosa).
According to the proposed solutions, the channel through the Vistula spit will be 1.3 km long, 5 m deep and 120 m wide. Vessels with a draft of up to 4 m, a length of up to 100 m, and a width of up to 20 m will be able to pass through the channel to the Elblag port. The artificial island will be an elliptical shape with its axes being 1,932 and 1,192 m long. The height of the island will be 203 m above the sea level.
The newspaper noted that the Polish authorities do not plan to use the island for tourism purposes.
The construction of the island will be financed from the budget and will reportedly cost about 880 million zlotys (more than 15.8 billion rubles).
Experts point out that public funds will hardly cover the expenses and, most likely, the construction budget will later significantly grow.
The construction of the channel and the island will be carried out in accordance with the program for the construction of a waterway connecting the Vistula Lagoon and the Gulf of Gdansk adopted by the Polish government in 2016-2022. The goal of the program is to ensure security and defense opportunities in the region by providing access to the Baltic Sea from the Vistula Lagoon.
The Polish Maritime Administration in Gdynia stated that they will start a tender after receiving all permits not earlier than March 2019. The tender will be held in three stages.