I read information that the project to build a canal through the Vistula Spit is entering the next phase of preparations.
Great, I think it's a very good project, except that...

Except that the idea is not new.
In two words - it's about giving the port in Elbląg independent access to the sea, free from Russian influence.
Now it depends on political circumstances and it's more absent than present.
Much has been said about this project since the early 1990s, it began to take real shape in 2006, after the Prime Minister's declaration that the investment would be implemented.

The program “Construction of a waterway connecting the Vistula Lagoon with the Bay of Gdańsk” was launched by parliamentary act in 2007. Documentation was prepared, public consultations were conducted. Due to ineffective actions, the project expired in 2013. The Ministry of Infrastructure had to develop a new draft resolution from scratch regarding the construction of a canal through the Vistula Spit.
Another round of consultations is just beginning (which have already been conducted once), after their completion the environmental impact assessment will be presented for approval to the General Directorate for Environmental Protection, the Chief Sanitary Inspectorate and the European Commission (for the second time, by the way),
in case of a positive opinion, the decision to implement the project will belong to the Council of Ministers - the expected deadline is the second quarter of 2016.
Problems keep appearing: supplementation regarding the project's impact on
Natura 2000 areas, indication of public purpose, the Espoo Convention... etc.
The result - the canal has a chance to be built by 2022....

And how was it almost 100 years ago?

November 1918 - Poland regains independence and has access to the sea practically only through the port
in Gdańsk. So very limited. Meanwhile, already in October, Minister of Public Works Gabriel Narutowicz indicates Gdynia as a potential location for building a seaport.

1920 – During the war with Soviet Russia, Germany tries to block military equipment deliveries directed to Gdańsk.

1922 – There is a port construction project; construction work is already underway, interrupted by lack of money
(remember this is a time of inflation); in September the Sejm passes a construction act.

1923 – the Temporary Military Port opens, strikes continue in Gdańsk and Gdynia receives its first passenger ship "Kentucky", sailing under the French flag.

1926 – miners' strikes continue in England, and more and more ships begin calling at the port for Polish coal. Gdynia obtains city rights.

1933 – this is how Dziennik Poznański describes Gdynia (December 8, 1933) "1,300 port buildings (...), 320 hectares of inner port waters, 10 km of concrete quays, 150 km of port railway tracks, 2.5 km of modern breakwaters, warehouse and building volume counting hundreds of thousands, dozens of cranes, several monumental buildings serving the needs of Polish shipping, 42 regular shipping lines, cargo handling reaching hundreds of thousands of tons monthly..." This is the year when the port of Gdynia already handles more goods than Gdańsk; the Marine Station opens; the Silesia – Gdynia railway line is also completed.

1939 – Gdynia is a metropolis with 120,000 inhabitants.

A country devastated by the partition period and two wars, during an economic crisis, built a large modern seaport and city in several years – one of the most beautiful in Poland. I have been learning about the history of Gdynia's construction for many years, I have read quite a bit and nowhere have I come across information that the Gdynia construction investment encountered any administrative obstacles.
Currently, almost everyone wants to build 1,100 meters of canal, but it's unclear whether the project will be successfully implemented within 15 years.

I wrote this article because, building advertising carriers, we deal with administrative procedures on a daily basis
. We know a lot about them.

Today the investment preparation process takes over 7 years.
100 years ago, that's how long it took to transform a fishing village of 1,300 inhabitants into a city.