PKP Polish Railway Lines has put into operation the TBM Faustyna for the construction of the second tunnel in Łódź between Łódź Fabryczna, Łódź Kaliska and Łódź Żabieniec station.
The TMB Faustyna started the tunneling work at the Stolarska Street towards Łódź Koziny stop and the Łódź Żabieniec station. On a 1.1 km, the second of 4 single-track tunnels will be constructed in the city.
TBM Faustyna will also build two more underground lines constructing a 760m tunnel from Żniwna to Stolarska streets and another 710m tunnel from Stolarska to the Unii Lubelskiej Street
At the same time, TBM Katarzyna, with a diameter of over 13 meters, is boring a 2.7 km double-track tunnel from Stolarska Street to the Łódź Fabryczna station. The contractor also continues work on the construction of the Łódź Śródmieście, Łódź Polesie and Łódź Koziny stops.
The tunnel in Łódź project covers the construction of an underground cross-city line linking the Łódź Kaliska and Łódź Żabieniec stations, both situated to the west of the centre, with Łódź Fabryczna, the largest and most centrally located of the city’s main railway stations. The tunnel construction represents the second phase of Łódź rail node development covering 7.24 km of rail with the largest part being constructed in tunnels.
At the beginning of 2022, TBM Faustyna completed the Lodz first tunnel (3 km) which will be served by three stations (Śródmieście, Polesie and Koziny) which will be integrated to the existing public transport network. Under the project another four single-track tunnels totalling 4.5 km from the junction at Włókniarzy Street to the direction of Łódź Żabieniec and Łódź Kaliska is to be constructed. 17 km is the total track length served by the three new underground stops in the center of Łódź.
The main tunnel starts at the Fabryczna station throat and is to contain two underground stops Łódź Zielona and Łódź Ogrodowa. To the westwards, the tunnel splits into four branches, of which two subsequently run southwards to Kaliska, and the other two northwards to Żabieniec. At the beginning of 2022, TBM Faustyna completed the Lodz first tunnel (3 km) which will be served by three stations (Śródmieście, Polesie and Koziny) which will be integrated to the existing public transport network.
The line will be used by regional and long distance trains running through the centre of Łódź, on the east-west and north-south axis. The new rail section to Fabryczna represents the extension of the existing Line No.17 which has a total length of over 26 km and runs from the town of Koluszki, to the east of Łódź, as far as Fabryczna. The connections to Kaliska and Żabieniec are to form the 68 km Line No. 15 serving the route between the village of Bednary, north-east of Łódź, and Kaliska.
The project, implemented by the Polish rail infrastructure manager, worth PLN 1.5 billion (EUR 318.5 million) and is co-financed by the Operational Programme Infrastructure and Environment (OPI & E). the first stage of the project has received a EUR 243 million financing from the European Union under the 2007-2013 MFF and covered the construction of a tunnel between the Łódź Widzew station in the east of the city, and Fabryczna. EUR 595.2 million is the total investment for the second stage of Łódź railway node of which the Cohesion Fund provided EUR 411.3 million through the OPI & E.
The construction of the tunnels providing rail connection to the Łódź Fabryczna station is part of Lodz rail junction situated on the TEN-T and will provide new rail connections and improve local, regional and national passenger and freight transport. In addition, the tunnel project will be part of the Solidarity Transport Hub (CPK) network which will provide high-speed rail connections between Warsaw and Lodz and will create a 2,000 km rail system. Currently, for 1,300 km of rail lines the feasibility studies are almost completed. Recently, STH has announced the investor variant for the 140 km Warsaw – Łódź high-speed rail connection.
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