History of a highway

 The history of this project goes back 10 years to when the tender for the motorway was first announced. After the preliminary design for the road had been drawn up by Transprojekt Gdańsk, the tender was eventually held on 25th August 1997 and won by the Gdańsk Transport Company (GTC) – a special purpose company set up purely for this particular project. It is owned by a consortium in which Skanska ID (then Skanska BOT) has the largest stake, with 30 pct of the shares, British company Laing Roads has a 29.69 pct shareholding, Nederpol Development & Investment of Sopot has 25.31 pct and Intertoll from South Africa owns the remaining 15 pct. What had been won was the concession for the right to design, build, and operate a stretch of motorway running from Rusocin on the Gdańsk ringroad to Toruń. This, however, was only the first step. Nothing could be done until a ‘concession agreement’ had been reached with the Ministry of Transport outlining all the terms and conditions of the investment. To achieve this, GTC entered into a long period of negotiations, culminating in the signing of the final agreement 7 years later, on 31st August 2004.

Evolving framework

The final concession agreement reached stipulated that the first phase of the project, an 89 km segment from Rusocin to Nowe Marzy, is to be finished by the end of November 2008 and would be 70 pct financed by a loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB) amounting to EUR 500 mln, and 30 pct from The Nordic Investment Bank (NIB) – EUR 140 mln. Amongst the other conditions agreed to was that the A1 would be run by GTC as a toll motorway, for which they would be paid by the government, with the toll revenues going towards the National Road Fund. The agreement also stipulates that GTC is responsible for the upkeep and running of the motorway (eg. repairs, cleaning, cutting of trees and grass etc.), and if it is decided by an independent engineer that the company is not doing its job, then penalties are incurred through deductions to the amount paid by the government for these services.

Political risk

The president of GTC maintains that despite the complexity and length of the talks, and the final terms of the agreement, that this contract was worth it. However, he qualifies this: “The element of risk attached to such schemes in Poland is mainly due to the uncertainty in the political situation. The impact of political decisions can have a huge impact on society and the economy. In the UK, the risk is much lower than in Poland. But we are working closely with the government to ensure the smooth execution of the A1 project.”

 The contractor, a joint-venture between Skanska and NDI, was in for an unpleasant surprise when it was discovered that there was a great deal more peaty soil along the route of the A1 than had been accounted for in the preliminary study. This problem can be dealt with in several ways, eg: replacing the bad soil with new, by drainage or with stone columns. But for phase 1 of the A1 project, GTC had agreed to cover the costs of such an eventually, and so has had to foot the entire bill for overcoming this problem.

 So much for phase 1 of this project, but what about phase 2 from Nowe Marzy to Toruń? A question mark has now arisen over GTC’s involvement in the second stage, after the Minister of Transport, Jerzy Polaczek, started making noises in the spring about how this PPP arrangement is too expensive. He claims that GTC want around EUR 7.4 mln per kilometre, whereas   Nathan North