A tunnel boring machine named "Jolanta" arrived at the Płyta Desantu site on the night before 30 September and took its place in the launch shaft. In early October it will begin boring the tunnel of the second line of the Mokotowski Bis collector. This is another undertaking by Wodociągi Warszawskie, a company of the capital city of Warsaw. Construction work has been under way since the middle of the year, and the machine's entry into the shaft opens its most important stage.
The machine was named "Jolanta" in keeping with a long-standing custom under which boring and microtunnelling machines used to build tunnels and collectors receive female names. According to the utility, the tunnel will be driven in three sections measuring 853 m, 711 m and 814 m, a total of 2,378 m. The machine is 3.4 m in diameter and weighs 107 tonnes. At Płyta Desantu it will work at a depth of 15 m, and near the junction of Czerniakowska and Gagarina streets, where the new tunnel joins the first line, at about 10 m.
The second line of the collector is to be 2.4 km long. It will run from the junction of Czerniakowska and Gagarina, then along Czerniakowska and Solec streets, to Płyta Desantu. It will provide more than 17,000 m³ of additional capacity for sewage, and both lines together will increase the city sewer system's capacity by more than 23,000 m³. A pumping station will be built at Płyta Desantu, transferring sewage mixed with stormwater to the existing Nabrzeżny collector.
As Jarosław Robak, Director of the Project Implementation Unit of Wodociągi Warszawskie, put it, the new collector will ease the load on the present sewer system and give the city a retention buffer for heavy rainfall. According to the utility, such a solution will allow stormwater overflow to be drained more efficiently.
Boring work is to be completed in the second half of 2027, and the collector is to be commissioned in the first half of 2029. The first line, 1.2 km long and running along Gagarina street, has been in operation since 2024. The Lindego Bis and Wiślany collectors were brought into use in Warsaw earlier.
The value of the task "Construction of the Mokotowski Bis collector - Stage II, together with the reconstruction of the Płyta Desantu discharge facility" is estimated at about PLN 218.5 million net. The contractor is Inżynieria Rzeszów. The investment is co-financed by the European Union under the European Funds for Infrastructure, Climate, Environment 2021-2027 programme. It forms part of the project "Water supply and wastewater treatment in Warsaw - Phase VII".
