PKP Polskie Linie Kolejowe plan to publish a tender this month for the completion of Łódź’s troubled cross-city tunnel. The rail manager has warned that four tenement buildings above the stalled tunnel boring machine are degraded and face a risk of further uncontrolled failure once excavation resumes.
Half a year has passed since PLK terminated the contract with Przedsiębiorstwo Budowy Dróg i Mostów from Mińsk Mazowiecki. At the time, PLK cited numerous construction errors, extremely low efficiency and the lack of a realistic, credible and feasible plan for continuing the works. The previous contractor had begun drilling in December 2020, and around 980 metres of the tunnel remain to be bored.
PLK has completed technical consultations with five companies experienced in tunnel construction, covering technology, protection of buildings, scenarios for restarting the drive and risk identification. The new contractor should be selected through a restricted tender, which the company intends to announce in August. Earlier assumptions that a new firm could enter the site in the third or fourth quarter of this year have been abandoned.
Katarzyna’s condition and the buildings above
– The planned date for resuming boring is the first quarter of 2027, and it will depend, among other things, on the results of the technical assessment of the TBM – said Rafał Wilgusiak from the PKP PLK press team.
The machine, named Katarzyna, belongs to the contractor that was removed from the project. The Łódź Voivode, at PLK’s request, issued a decision obliging the owner to hand the TBM over to the rail company so that the tunnel can be finished.
Four tenement houses located above the machine were taken over by the voivode in mid-June. Appraisers selected by the voivode are valuating the properties; compensation decisions and payments will follow. PLK says compensation will be calculated individually based on the replacement value of the flats, without taking the degree of wear into account.
– As for the further fate of the buildings, the inspections and technical analyses confirmed their degradation and the risk of further uncontrolled failure during the resumption of boring. However, at this stage there is no final decision on their demolition. The scope of any demolition will depend on the technology adopted by the new contractor – said Rafał Wilgusiak.
Earlier reports in the Łódź press said residents of the four buildings had been told during meetings with PLK that the company expects to reach the tunnel shield from above.
Second procurement and the wider railway scheme
In parallel with the main tender, PLK is preparing another procedure for equipping the tunnels and building the stop infrastructure. The exact scope is still unknown because an inventory of the works left by the previous contractor is under way.
– We expect the results of the ending inventory of works after the previous contractor, whose completion will allow us to precisely determine the scope of works. The announcement of this tender is planned for the turn of 2026 and 2027 – Wilgusiak told WNP.PL.
The cross-city tunnel is a key but not the only part of the Łódź investment. The project includes three new stops – Łódź Śródmieście, Łódź Polesie and Koziny – and four single-track tunnels with a total length of about 4.5 km connecting Łódź Kaliska and Łódź Żabieniec with Koziny. The single-track tunnels are already finished; the TBM Faustyna completed its work there in December 2024.
Once the entire route is open, local, regional and long-distance trains will run through the centre of Łódź, and Łódź Fabryczna will turn from a terminus into a transit station. The original contract, signed in December 2017, assumed completion in December 2021, but that date was moved several times. PLK now avoids giving a precise schedule or final cost. In early 2026, the company mentioned 2.5 billion złoty, but that estimate predated the change of contractor; the final price will depend on the inventory results, the technical condition of the TBM, the proceedings and the timetables proposed by future contractors.
Source: WNP.PL, Photo: Łódzki Urząd Wojewódzki / CC0 (Public domain)
