Five bids revealed for Poland’s longest rail tunnel

A total of five bids have been submitted for the construction of the long-distance tunnel on railway line no. 85 in Łódź, Poland. The process of evaluating and verifying the bids will now commence, with its duration depending on the quality of the submitted documents. This marks the largest construction tender announced by client, CPK and will result in the creation of Poland’s longest railway tunnel at 4.6km length.

The contract with the selected contractor is planned to be signed in the second half of 2025.

The tender encompasses the construction of the tunnel from the “Retkinia” chamber to the “Fabryczna” chamber, along with the infrastructure required for the functioning of the tunnel, chambers, and railway line.

The contracting authority allocated PLN2.8bn gross for the project. The lowest bid amounted to PLN2.166bn gross, while the highest was PLN2.797bn gross.

The tunnel will primarily serve high-speed trains running between three major Polish cities: Warsaw, Wrocław, and Poznań.

The complexity of the process is demonstrated by the fact that the specification of the contract terms, together with annexes, amounted to approximately 2000 documents. In total, CPK received around 1000 questions regarding the tender from 25 potential contractors.

The most advantageous bid will be selected based on the evaluation criteria: price (70% weighting) and personnel qualifications (30%).

The contractor will be required to complete the project within 46 months of signing the contract.

The CPK long-distance tunnel is a key element of the “Y” line – the proposed High-Speed Railway route connecting Warsaw, CPK, Łódź, Wrocław, and Poznań. The tunnel will run through the centre of Łódź, underneath densely built-up areas. Accordingly, the selected contractor will be required, even at the detailed design stage, to re-analyse geotechnical reinforcement and structural safeguards.

The tunnel construction is set to commence in the fourth quarter of 2026 and is expected to be completed by the third quarter of 2028.

The entire section of line 85 between Warsaw and Łódź is scheduled to be operational by 2032, coinciding with the opening of the new national airport. Once completed, the train journey between the two cities will be reduced to approximately 40 minutes. This investment represents a crucial step in realising the “100 Minutes Poland” rail project, which aims to improve connections and address transport exclusion across Poland.

The submitted offers are as follows:

• PORR S.A. – Leader, PORR Bau GmbH – Partner – PLN 1,761,234,967.15 net (US$431.27M) / PLN 2,166,319,009.59 gross
• Gülermak S.A. – PLN 2,098,442,552.85 net (US$513.75M)/ PLN 2,581,084,340.01 gross
• China Harbour Engineering Co. Ltd – PLN 2,098,479,442.47 net (US$513.76M) / PLN 2,581,129,714.24 gross
• NDI S.A. – Leader of the consortium, DOĞUŞ İNŞAAT VE TİCARET A.Ş – Partner – PLN 2,108,086,400.67 net (US$516.11M) / PLN 2,592,946,272.82 gross
• TORPOL S.A. – Leader, MIRBUD S.A. – Partner – PLN 2,274,616,079.49 net (US$556.88M) / PLN 2,797,777,777.77 gross