Kayaks, yachts and motorboats have been mainly using the Vistula Spit cutting for over two years, and this was not the concept behind PiS's flagship investment. The change of government ends the dispute over the deepening of the kilometer-long waterway to Elbląg. The government will do it, not the local government – there is already a tender.
Without the deepening of the waterway in Elbląg itself, ships coming from the Baltic Sea through the ditch and the Vistula Lagoon just before Elbląg would run aground, because the last 900 meters in the city port are too shallow and too narrow for seagoing ships. Therefore, the government announced a tender for the project to deepen this section.
– That the excavation of the spit, for which nearly PLN 2 billion was spent, would finally be useful – emphasized Arkadiusz Marchewka, Deputy Minister of Infrastructure.
READ ALSO: Digging the Vistula Spit and questions about the economic recovery of Elbląg
The United Right government planned and built the ditch without deepening the section in the port itself, and when it opened it, it assumed that either the Elbląg authorities would complete the canal with their own money, or they would hand over the city port to the state.
– The previous government claimed that this is not a waterway that belongs to the government. Today, the government admits to this waterway – says Michał Missan, mayor of Elbląg.
The Supreme Audit Office enumerates a number of irregularities around the Vistula Spit excavationJan Błaszkowski/Fakty TVN
“The investment is more of a tourist nature”
The shipping lane is to be widened and deepened. This will initially cost over PLN 30 million more than planned in the minimum variant.
– Donald Tusk should be immediately sued to the prosecutor's office for the idiocy he is doing, because he sued me for building a ditch through the Vistula Spit – says Marek Gróbarczyk, an MP from Law and Justice.
In this ironic way, Marek Gróbarczyk, responsible for the construction of the trench in the United Right government, comments on further expenditure on the investment, despite the investigation into the more than doubling of construction costs during his rule and the Supreme Audit Office's report, which is negative for the United Right. – The economics of this project are highly questionable – notes Marcin Marjański from the Supreme Audit Office.
Last year, less than 2,000 vessels passed through the Vistula Spit, of which 3/4 were yachts and motorboats. In December, traffic stopped almost completely. On some days not a single ship passed through the canal.
– For now, this investment is more of a tourist than commercial nature – admits Arkadiusz Zgliński from the Elbląg Sea Port Authority. This may change in two years at the earliest, because that's how long it will take to deepen the final straight.
Main photo source: Fakty TVN