Tramwaje Warszawskie has completed the evaluation of bids in the tender for the design of the route to Zielona Białołęka. The design and acquisition of all necessary documents will be handled by a company from Kraków, which will be given three and a half years to complete the work. Construction is not scheduled to begin until 2028.
– Tram to Zielona Białołęka – another important step behind us. Tramwaje Warszawskie has just selected the contractor for the route project – said the mayor of Warsaw, Rafał Trzaskowski. – Voessing Polska sp. z o. o. will be responsible for carrying out the design work and obtaining the necessary permits and administrative documents, including a building permit. The contractor will have until 2028 to complete this part of the work. That is when we plan to start the construction work on this key transport investment for the residents of the district – added Trzaskowski.
Officials stipulate that the signing of the agreement will only be possible after the completion of procedures, including those related to possible appeals against the tender results. The selected contractor will prepare complete design documentation, enabling the ordering and execution of construction works. It will also obtain all the permits required by law for the implementation of the works.
Tram to Zielona Białołęka – visualizations Warsaw Trams
The designer will get three and a half years
The designer will have up to 42 months.
In the first stage, it will perform an analysis of the communication service of the connection of the eastern part of Białołęka with the Kondratowicza metro station (taking into account the possibility of using a joint tram and bus route). The next step after selecting one of the three variants is to develop construction designs. These will be architectural and construction designs and executive designs for the tram route itself and the remaining infrastructure.
The contractor will also prepare the documents required to obtain decisions allowing the commencement of construction works, including a report on the reassessment of the investment's impact on the environment. “This will allow the commencement of construction of the tram route to be accelerated. The company that will build the tram to Zielona Białołęka, having a complete set of agreements with the owners of the underground networks and road managers, will be able to commence construction earlier,” the press release stated.
Construction, after receiving the design documentation and obtaining the necessary decisions, is planned for the years to come. 2028-2030, if funding can be secured.
Tram to Zielona Białołęka – visualizations Warsaw Trams
Tram to Zielona Białołęka – route, travel time
The route will be almost 6.5 kilometres long. It will start in Targówek at the intersection of Matki Teresa z Kalkuty and Rembielińska streets. It will then run along św. Wincentego and Głębocka streets. Then, it will pass over the S8 route and Mała Brzozy roundabout on a kilometre-long viaduct. The last section will run in the reserve area up to Primary School No. 112 on Zaułek Street, where there will be a bus and tram terminus.
This route will connect Zielona Białołęka with the Kondratowicza metro station. Trams will be able to run even every 2-3 minutes. The estimated travel time from the loop to the metro station at Kondratowicza will be about 15 minutes, and to Dworzec Wileński about 30 minutes.
Tram route to BiałołękaWarsaw City Hall
An investment that has been promised for years
Discussions about this tram line have been going on for over a dozen years. The first serious declaration was made in 2016.. Officials indicated at the time that conceptual work would begin in 2017. Design work was to begin in 2019-20. A construction tender was also planned to be announced then. Work was expected to begin in 2021.
As the city hall argued, the prolonged preparations were the result of a long wait for an environmental decision. The office submitted an application for it in July 2020. The Regional Directorate for Environmental Protection issued the approval only three years later.
Also in the last election campaign, the then mayor of Warsaw, Rafał Trzaskowski, who was running for re-election, assured that the tram to Białołęka was back on track. “absolute priority.”
The line to Białołęka was already promised by his predecessor Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz. – I can announce that, as we announced last year, we have very intensively started work on being able to materialize a tram to Zielona Białołęka (…) We have started very intensively and the investment task is absolutely underway – declared Renata Kaznowska, then and now the deputy mayor of Warsaw, in 2017.
Main image source: Warsaw Trams