Partner Stocznia from Police is set to design and build a dredger worth nearly PLN 280 million for maintaining the approach fairway to Świnoujście and the fairway to Szczecin. The Maritime Office in Szczecin received two bids in the tender. The deadline for any appeal to the National Appeals Chamber (KIO) expires on 12 November.

Ewa Wieczorek, spokesperson for the Maritime Office in Szczecin, told PAP that the most advantageous bid in the tender procedure for the “Purchase of a dredger for maintaining the approach fairways to Świnoujście and the Świnoujście–Szczecin fairway” had been selected. The contractor will be Partner Stocznia, operating in Police (West Pomeranian Voivodeship), which offered to carry out the contract for PLN 279,210,000. Remontowa Shipbuilding SA of Gdańsk also submitted a bid, offering to design and build the dredger for over PLN 347 million.

According to Public Procurement Law, a contract with the selected contractor may be signed 10 days after the results are announced, provided that no other bidder files an appeal with the National Appeals Chamber, Wieczorek explained.

The deadline for any appeal to KIO is Wednesday, 12 November. Two criteria were used to evaluate the bids: price (weight 60) and extension of the warranty and quality guarantee period (40).

In an interview with PAP a few weeks ago, Wojciech Zdanowicz, Director of the Maritime Office in Szczecin, announced that the office would be ready to sign a contract with the contractor as early as November this year. The contract (technical and classification design plus construction) is expected to take 36 months.

“It will be a large vessel, about 80 meters long, with a cargo hold capacity of at least 3,000 cubic meters,” Zdanowicz explained.

He noted that the new dredger will be used to maintain deep-water shipping routes, including the planned new eastern approach fairway to Świnoujście, which will be 70 kilometers long, 500 meters wide, and 17 meters deep.

“It will also operate on approaches to smaller ports such as Kołobrzeg and Darłowo. Additionally, it may be used for reclamation works, artificial beach nourishment, and widening beaches,” Zdanowicz said.

The technical name of the vessel to be built for the Maritime Office is a trailing suction hopper dredger. The tender required it to be equipped with devices for loading dredged material “into a self-discharging hold using a trailing suction pipe,” and three options for unloading: via bottom doors, a “rainbow” discharge nozzle, or through connection to a quay.

The vessel is to have a maximum length of 84.5 meters, a beam of 20 meters, and a draft not exceeding 5.5 meters. The minimum dredging depth is set at 5 meters, and the maximum at 25 meters. Propulsion will be provided by two diesel engines. An electrically powered bow thruster is planned. Additional equipment will include a hydrographic workboat and an autonomous surface vehicle for depth measurements.

The Maritime Office in Szczecin announced its first tender for the dredger in December 2024, but only one non-compliant offer was submitted. The procedure was repeated in mid-2025. Partner Stocznia of Police intends to build the vessel in a consortium with Szczecin Shipyard “Wulkan” and the “Neptun” shipyard from the Netherlands. The 80-meter vessel may therefore become another project carried out in Szczecin for the Maritime Office. In early October, Wulkan shipyard held the so-called steel cutting ceremony for the construction of a 29-meter buoy tender.

The dredger tender is part of the government programme “Construction and development of access infrastructure to the port of Świnoujście in 2023–2029.” Funding is provided by the state budget.

The Maritime Office in Szczecin operates several vessels for fairway maintenance, installation and servicing of navigational aids, as well as rescue and firefighting tasks. The largest vessel, Planeta I, is stationed in Świnoujście.

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In the photo: Ursa, a dredger operated by the Maritime Office in Gdynia. Photo: MarinePoland.com