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On March 17 the 13th edition of the conference Polish Infrastructure and Construction was held in Warsaw. It hosted leading representatives of the construction industry who had the opportunity to participate in four discussion panels and numerous case studies.

Strategic Investments and Debate of Polish Construction Leaders

The participants of the Strategic Investments and Debate of the Leaders of Polish Construction were among others Nicolas Dépret - President of the Management Board of VINCI Construction Polska, WARBUD and EUROVIA in Poland; Stefan Bekir Assanowicz - President of the Management Board and General Director of Trakcja Group; Darius Blocher - Member of the Supervisory Board of Unibep; Jorge Calabuig Ferre - President of the Management Board of Mostostal Warszawa, Łukasz Marcinkiewicz - Country Manager Poland at Hill International, Janusz Władyczak - President of the Management Board of KUKE, and Paul Wozniak - acting General Director of National Roads and Motorways.

In his speech Nicolas Dépret emphasized the absence of strategy and priority directions for the development of the industry set by the Government of the Republic of Poland:

‘Poland has been the largest construction market in Europe for several decades. When we look at the statistics, in an average period of 5 years we are once in a crisis and once in a boom. And a boom is nothing more than a different kind of problem. For those companies who have a potential to develop, who are able to identify market needs and know what they can offer to it, it is problematic to measure the potential which must be resilient in times of crisis and which can be used in times of boom. Our Group has an enormous potential; we implement various internal investments which allow us to increase that potential, but we also adapt our capabilities to market realities.

‘When we speak about future prospects, we still do not know the strategic vision of the construction market in Poland, we do not know what the construction industry should look like to meet the needs of the country not only now but also in 20 years’ time. There is no universal potential to build everything. We need specific information and directions from decision-makers to develop competencies which will later allow us to meet the country's needs. We need a strategic conversation at the top government level to define priorities - what we want to develop in the country, what industry we want to have.’

The discussion focussed on public investments, which in the context of the economic slowdown may act as a driving force for the economy, on opportunities and threats to the continuation of strategic infrastructure projects, as well as on the situation of the Polish construction market under the influence of the KPO (National Reconstruction Plan). Topics related to critical infrastructure from the perspective of national security and resilience to cyber threats and physical attacks were also discussed, as well as the topic of CPK (Central Transportation Hub).

Road infrastructure with the voice of EUROVIA Polska

In the panel devoted to "Road infrastructure" the floor was taken by Mr. Kamil Simka - Managing Director and Vice President of the Management Board of EUROVIA Polska, emphasizing, among others, the aspect of planning on the local government market.

‘There is no long-term knowledge about development projects which will be implemented. Planning is extremely important to the industry. Contractors must prepare, plan the use of resources and funds, but also the collection of those resources, which is associated with high costs.’ He stressed the need of sharing good practices between clients, designers and contractors and the importance of standardisation at the implementation and maintenance stages as one of the elements reducing construction costs. The commonly accepted focus on project price alone is considered to be a mistake:

‘There is a cost criterion that we do not refer to, there is the project cycle, which would take into account both construction costs and operating costs. This is mainly assigned to the client or designer. The knowledge of contractors allowing to reduce the life cycle costs of the entire project is very rarely used. Today we focus solely on the cost of construction, so we use price as a criterion. Meanwhile, the contractor has the knowledge of how to optimize the total costs of the project cycle, which does not always mean that it is necessary to build cheaper. You can build more expensively in order to reduce operating costs, but on the other hand we forget that it is still possible to build cheaper using recycled materials.’

Discussions in that panel focussed on the future of road construction in Poland, developing the network, priority projects and key trends in the road sector. The topics discussed included the calculation of costs related to the operation, maintenance, repairs and modernization of roads and bridges in the context of environmental and safety conditions. There were also discussions about the quality, innovation of building materials and sources of road construction financing. The PPP formula was mentioned as an example of efficient project completion and good cooperation between the public and private sectors. The series of issues discussed at the expert forum concluded with a discussion on the role of local governments in the development of the road network, mobility and traffic safety on local roads.