An international tender has been announced for projects for restoration of the E-40 waterway between the ports of Gdansk (Poland) and Kherson (Ukraine) in the Baltic and Black Seas, respectively. The tender was announced by the commission on the development of the E40 waterway in the Dnieper-Vistula section, the PortNews publication reports.
Bids are to be submitted from June 13 to July 11, 2014. The winner will receive up to EUR 493,000 to prepare three feasible options for reconstruction of the water route, which is currently unnavigable in the Western Bug section between Warsaw and Brest. The most efficient and ecological scenario will be approved by the end of 2015, and it will be used as a basis for planning improvements to hydraulic engineering structures.
It is noted that restoration of the trunk waterway, which runs through Warsaw, Kiev, and Brest, will provide Belarus, Poland, and Ukraine new opportunities to export more of their goods, increase transit shipping, and attract more tourists seeking river voyages.
The winner of the tender will have to conduct an analysis of the socioeconomic, institutional, legal, and financial conditions influencing sustainable development of the E40 waterway, whilst taking into consideration the ecological repercussions and technical peculiarities of the national sections of the water artery.
"The participants in the tender have to meet serious requirements. A successful candidate has to possess the experience of successful realization of at least two projects in the realm of water transportation. These two projects must have been implemented partially or fully within the past ten years, and their budgets cannot be below EUR 400,000. Another requirement is that no less than 20% of the employees at a candidate organization must work in fields related to the project (e.g. navigation, hydrology, civil engineering, aquatic, and terrestrial biology)," the document states.
The tender will be conducted in two stages. After an initial handling, the 4-8 best applications (depending on the number of bids) will be selected. Their authors will be asked to present offers that are more detailed, on the basis of which the final decisions will be made.
The tender is organized by the commission on the development of the E40 waterway in the Dnieper-Vistula section, which will also supervise the preparation of scenarios for reconstruction of the water route. The commission includes scientists, specialists in water management, politicians, and officials from Belarus, Poland, and Ukraine; it was established thanks to the EU-funded project "Restoration of the E40 waterway on the Dnieper-Vistula section: from strategy to planning.”
