The Port of Gdańsk Authority and Transprojekt Gdański have signed an agreement covering the preparation of design documentation and the acquisition of administrative approvals for a new integrated border control point to be built within the port. Work on the project is due to begin shortly and is expected to take approximately two years.

The planned integrated border control point at the Port of Gdańsk will house all the services responsible for inspecting and clearing goods imported and exported by sea. At present, these services are spread across the port, making cargo clearance procedures more cumbersome. Bringing them together in a single location is intended to streamline inspections and optimise these procedures, while also preparing the port for further growth in cargo volumes.

Plans to construct such a facility have been under discussion for some time, but work on the project accelerated last year, when the Port of Gdańsk Authority and the Pomeranian Voivodeship Office signed an agreement enabling cooperation on the design and cost documentation. Today, 6 August 2026, an agreement was officially signed at the Northern Port Harbour Master's Office with the contractor selected through a tender for the project – Transprojekt Gdański.

Transprojekt Gdański will be responsible for preparing the design documentation and, crucially, obtaining all the administrative approvals required for the project to go ahead. These administrative procedures are often among the most time-consuming stages of the process. Once all the necessary approvals have been obtained, a contractor for the construction works can be selected.

"The integrated border control point will be a building, together with the accompanying infrastructure, designed simply to ensure that the services carrying out inspections – including the National Revenue Administration, veterinary services and those responsible for checking goods arriving at the Port of Gdańsk for compliance with agri-food and seed-sector standards – can operate in a single building, in one location. At present, they are dispersed" – explains Dorota Pyć, President of the Port of Gdańsk Authority.

Although the Port of Gdańsk Authority signed the contract for the preparation of the design, the construction works themselves will be carried out in cooperation with the Pomeranian Voivodeship Office. The Port of Gdańsk, however, is providing a 2-hectare plot immediately adjacent to the Baltic Hub.

Dorota Pyć, President of the Port of Gdańsk Authority, describes the port as a "co-investor", while Emil Rojek, Deputy Voivode of Pomerania, clarifies that the port will formally act as the investor.

"The port owns the land and will be responsible for obtaining all the necessary permits and approvals. The project itself, however, is being financed from the state budget through a government grant, also because the facility will be used to a very large extent by state services" – Deputy Voivode Rojek adds.

The involvement of the state administration is not merely a matter of the project's financing structure. Representatives of various government services, including those responsible for collecting fees that generate revenue for the state budget, will work at the facility.

"A port is, of course, about imports and exports, as well as transit. All of these activities are highly significant for us, both as a region and as the Polish state. Imports generate customs duties and revenue for the state budget. The efficiency of customs clearance will increase interest in the Port of Gdańsk, boost cargo volumes and increase revenue from port fees. For us, the project is also crucial in terms of ensuring proper standards for our employees, services and the integrated administration operating in the voivodeship under the authority of the voivode, as well as for the central administration, because there are also inspection services here that report directly to individual ministries" – explains Deputy Voivode Emil Rojek.

Błażej Konkol, Deputy President of the Port of Gdańsk Authority for Infrastructure, adds that the planned integrated border control point will be the most modern facility of its kind in Poland, and perhaps even in Europe.

"This is a major undertaking. More than 10,500 square metres will be available to all the services involved in border traffic, making this a highly significant investment. It also demonstrates the close cooperation between the Port of Gdańsk Authority and government services" – Konkol says.

For Transprojekt Gdański, the project represents another opportunity to work on an investment within the Port of Gdańsk.

"Apart from our core business, which involves designing high-speed railways, motorways and expressways, one important area of our activity is hydrotechnical engineering and everything associated with it. We have successfully completed the T3 terminal project for Budimex. We are completing the design documentation for NDI, namely the T5 terminal, and starting today, we will be designing a facility that will serve the transport of cargo from these two terminals" – says Marek Rytlewski, President of Transprojekt Gdański.

He adds that he is particularly pleased that the company will be working "in its own backyard".

"We are contributing to the development of our region. That gives us the greatest satisfaction, because we can soon see the results of our work in the form of construction projects" – Rytlewski adds.

The integrated border control point will be built on a 2-hectare plot on Kontenerowa Street. The contract signed with Transprojekt Gdański for the preparation of the design documentation is worth more than PLN 3.5 million net. The contractor will have 110 weeks to complete the assignment, with the final deadline set for 14 September 2028.

"Functionally, it will consist of three facilities: an office building for the services, which will have nine floors; a border control hall, housing laboratories and comprising three floors; and a large canopy that will be used to inspect the security and sealing of goods subject to control" – explains Stefan Rudnik, Director of the Investment Department at the Port of Gdańsk Authority.

A car park with 245 spaces for passenger vehicles is planned on the roof of the border control hall.

"The design is due to be completed by 14 September 2028. We assumed that, provided we encounter no obstacles, the building and its associated infrastructure could be commissioned in 2030 or, alternatively, in 2031" – says Dorota Pyć, President of the Port of Gdańsk Authority.

"We expect to break ground in 2029, once the contractor for the investment has been selected. The facility will essentially be delivered on a turnkey basis, as the project is being implemented under a 'build' contract rather than a 'design and build' model. All the laboratory equipment will already be specified in the design. The contractor will prepare the facility so that the services can move into their new premises virtually overnight," – adds Stefan Rudnik.

The investment is expected to cost approximately PLN 160 million in total.

The planned office building will have nine above-ground floors and will be nearly 39 metres high, approximately 36 metres long and 18 metres wide. Its internal floor area is estimated at more than 5,200 square metres. The planned hall, meanwhile, will have three above-ground floors. It will be more than 170 metres long, 36 metres wide and nearly 12 metres high.

The facility will accommodate all the inspection services currently operating within the port: the National Revenue Administration (163 personnel), the Border Veterinary Inspection (22–25 personnel), the Border Sanitary and Epidemiological Station (22–25 personnel), the Provincial Inspectorate for Plant Health and Seed Inspection (10–11 personnel), and the Provincial Inspectorate for Trade Quality of Agricultural and Food Products (10–11 personnel).

The location of the facility immediately adjacent to Baltic Hub is not accidental. It will be responsible to a large extent for clearing cargo passing through the Baltic's largest container terminal. Representatives of the Port of Gdańsk make no secret of the fact that, if cargo volumes continue to grow at the rate seen in recent years, the staffing of the inspection services will also need to be increased. An increase in staffing at the National Revenue Administration has recently been discussed, while strengthening the capacity of the veterinary services is now becoming equally important.

Transprojekt Gdański was selected as the contractor for the design documentation of the integrated border control point in a tender launched by the Port of Gdańsk Authority in September 2025. The procedure itself, however, was not without difficulties.

"This is not an easy investment. The process of selecting the designer itself resulted in a number of appeals. There were as many as seven" – says Błażej Konkol, Deputy President of the Port of Gdańsk Authority.

Six bidders took part in the tender. The Port had secured approximately PLN 6.5 million net for the project. Some of the bids submitted, however, were surprisingly low and, in the contracting authority's assessment, it would not have been possible to complete the assignment within such a budget. For this reason, pursuant to the relevant provisions of public procurement law, the investor rejected three bids, while another was rejected due to an error in the calculation of the price or cost. Among the rejected bids were those submitted by Transprojekt Gdański and Projmors, both well-known names in the hydrotechnical engineering sector. Of the two remaining bids, the most favourably assessed was the one submitted by a consortium comprising Pracownia Projektowa SKEB Sp. k. and Kołtun sp.j. from Olsztyn.

In March, however, the Port of Gdańsk Authority was forced to annul this selection following a ruling by the National Appeals Chamber (KIO). BBC Best Building Consultants, 4 Idea K.S. and Transprojekt Gdański each lodged appeals with the KIO. The port was therefore required to reassess the bids. Three bids were again rejected, on the grounds of errors in the calculation of the price, non-compliance with the terms of the procurement procedure and an abnormally low price. Under the KIO ruling, Transprojekt Gdański's bid was deemed not to constitute an abnormally low offer. Transprojekt was therefore ultimately selected as the winner of the tender.

During the contract-signing ceremony, Marek Rytlewski, President of Transprojekt Gdański, thanked the Port of Gdańsk Authority for its diligence and said that the port belonged to "a very small group of contracting authorities that have the courage, know how not to take the path of least resistance and do not simply choose the lowest price".

"This tender was an excellent demonstration of that. It lasted from October last year all the way through to August this year, but the aim was to put in a great deal of effort and select the best bid, rather than the cheapest one. We appreciate that" – Rytlewski stressed.