New data on the resources of sand and grave aggregates for road investment and construction in Poland

Abstract

Upon accession to the European Union, economic growth became accelerated in Poland, resulting in a boost in infrastructure development. This led to a marked growth in demand for natural sand-gravel aggregates and other raw materials used in road construction. To meet the demand for suitable raw materials, the Ministry of Environment commissioned the Polish Geological Institute–National Research Institute to start a re-evaluation of earlier raw material prognoses assessments in order to delineate prognostic areas for development of new resources. The re-evaluation has been conducted by the PGI-NRI within the frame of the compilation of the Geoenvironmental Map of Poland at the scale of 1:50 000, making it possible to identify potential conflicts with land-use plans as well as already established NATURA 2000 and other natural heritage conservation designations and more or less continuous built up areas which preclude or at least impede exploitation of mineral raw materials. The analyses also covered economic factors related to costs of transport and the current economic criteria of mineral resources and reserves. At the first stage of the project (between 2008 and 2012) the re-evaluation was conducted in 432 prognostic areas with a total area of over 33 thousands of hectares. According to the current economic criteria of sand-gravel aggregate deposits there were estimated resources of over 5 mld tons, of which around 3 mld tons of aggregates were suitable for road investments and over 2 mld tons of aggregates were suitable for construction.The work has made it possible to re-evaluate the occurrences of natural aggregates in the vicinities of urban centers and along corridors delineated for selected planned motorways and expressways as well as those under construction. The study was compiled especially for business entities involved in construction projects or the exploitation of mineral resources and state administrative units as a tool to support land-use planning and management at the level of individual communes, counties (poviats) and voivodeships. Re-evaluated prognostic areas data are gathered in spatial database and are available through WMS service on the Geoenvironmental Map of Poland portal ( emgsp.pgi.gov.pl ).