Poland opens a $418 million Baltic canal to evade Russian waters

Posted on September 26, 2022   |  

• In 2019, Belgian contractor Besix and Poland’s NDI Group dug the 1.3km canal which is now open to shipping on 17 September.
• The Vistula Canal cuts via a 70-km-long sand barrier known as the Vistula Spit, which separates the Vistula Lagoon from Gdansk Bay in the open Baltic.
• The spit begins in the southwest as Polish territory and ends in the northeast as Russian territory, as a part of Moscow’s Kaliningrad enclave.
• Ships heading for the port of Elblag in the southwestern part of the lagoon had to proceed 50km northeast, to the Strait of Baltiysk, in Kaliningrad but the canal cuts out this 100km detour and lets shippers avoid paying Russia to use the strait.

Image: Global Construction Review