WJ Groundwater is celebrating the completion of a ‘key’ dewatering project at Lodz Fabryczna, Poland. The grand task took two years to reach completion and it has been instrumental in the establishment of our brand within east European markets. It has also provided us with a springboard to opening our first permanent office in Poland.
The new, three level railway terminal, Lodz Fabryczna is the new key communication hub for the redeveloped city-centre for Lodz. The whole enterprise is a part of a large regeneration scheme that is intended to contribute towards a revitalised local and national railway network. The new infrastructure will provide faster connections to the capital, Warsaw, and other large cities across Poland and Europe. The station is connected to the existing railway network via an underground tunnel running underneath the city centre. Both the station box and the tunnel were constructed using a top-down method and during the course of the excavation approximately 2 million m3 of earth has been removed.
WJ Groundwater has been tasked with the design, installation and maintenance of the dewatering system for both the station box and the tunnel. The station box is 750 m long, 130 m wide and 20 m deep and is founded 12 m below the water table. In addition to that, approximately half of the 2 km long tunnel also required groundwater lowering to enable the construction. Groundwater modelling has been used over the course of the project to ensure the most efficient design and to inform the client of the expected time frames.
Over 80 deepwells were installed and at the peak discharge, the flow of groundwater was recorded at 550 l/s. The system achieved the expected drawdown successfully and has run reliably for over two years that have enabled the contractor to complete excavation works in the expected time frame.
The job was overseen and managed by Artur Bienek (Project Manager) and Dariusz (aka Darek) Zieba (Project Supervisor) who ensured that the system operated reliably, come rain or snow – and sometimes operating at challenging temperatures dropping to -20 oC. They also managed our team of labourers, subcontractors, suppliers and not least, the very demanding client.
The project was a great successful for WJ Groundwater and our clients Astaldi / Torpol (joint venture). The successful completion of yet another major infrastructure job further reinforces and confirms WJ Groundwater’s ability to deliver large scale undertakings to order anywhere in the world. We have continued to source new commissions large and small across the region, establishing the WJ Groundwater name far and wide.
Previous progress updates for the Lodz Fabryczna job can be found inside our digital copies of our in-house magazine – The Wet End in Issue 24 (pg. 8), Issue 25 (pg. 6), Issue 26 (pg. 10), Issue 27 (pg. 7).
—
WJ Groundwater is an industry expert across a range of infrastructure sectors that includes; ports and marine, motorways, tunnels and shafts, to name a few. We are known specialists in:
Please visit our What We Do page to discover even more about our Groundwater management projects. You can also phone +44 (0)20 8950 7256 to discuss your project ideas and options today.
Photo: Architect’s impression sourced from nlf-b2.pl
Join the conversation