Recently, we received this question from a Reader: “I would like to find out from the relevant authorities what the current status of the network modernization is. For another year in a row, the pipes disfiguring one of Bolesławiec’s main streets are greeting arriving tourists.” The pipes in question are located on Wróblewskiego Street.

We asked ZEC about the matter. Here is the company’s response:

Zakład Energetyki Cieplnej Sp. z o.o. in Bolesławiec (...) informs us that work is currently under way on the process of moving the overhead pipelines on Wróblewskiego Street in Bolesławiec underground.

In previous years, preparations for carrying out an investment project with a very high degree of technical complexity were preceded by terminating contracts with companies whose advertisements had been placed on the pipeline and cutting down a tree located directly next to the network support.

It explains:

In May 2024, the Company signed an agreement with the Contractor to prepare design documentation entitled “Demolition of the 2xDn400 traditional overhead district-heating trunk network and construction of a 2xDn250/400 pre-insulated district-heating trunk network laid underground on Wróblewskiego Street in Bolesławiec.” The preparation of the documentation also required obtaining an environmental decision for the project, which was completed at the end of March 2025.

It adds:

The next stage in carrying out the investment was for the Company to submit applications for permits to demolish and construct the district-heating network to the Bolesławiec County Office and to the Lower Silesian Voivodeship Office in Wrocław, regarding the part of the investment located within the road reserve of national road no. 94. The Company received the required permits in June this year, and tender documentation is currently being prepared in order to select the Contractor to carry out the project. The Contractor is planned to be selected in the third or fourth quarter of 2025.

What will be done?

Company: – The works will be preceded by the removal of vegetation and shrubs along the district-heating pipeline route (the required application was submitted to the Bolesławiec County Office in June this year). The investment will include, among other things, dismantling the existing overhead network, earthworks together with the installation of a new pre-insulated network, and preparing a temporary replacement network with low parameters, adapted for operation during the summer, which will operate while the works are being carried out.

When will the unsightly pipes disappear?

ZEC: – The investment is planned to be completed in the third quarter of 2026, before the start of the heating season.