took into account the troublesome ground conditions present at the site, as the region has been previously used for coal mining and is known to remain susceptible to tectonic movement to the present day. During 1972, Katowice railway station was officially completed and passenger services commenced that year. It is located in the centre of Katowice city, and forms of the biggest transport interchanges anywhere in Poland. Since opening, the station has accommodated connecting services through to various major cities across Poland, as well as to many international destinations across Europe. Around the start of the twenty-first century, it is believed that, on average, around 520 trains per day were stopping at Katowice Railway Station, while the facility was also being used by roughly 12 million passengers annually. Through the station, Katowice is connected to major cities including Vienna, Budapest, Kiev, Berlin, Ostrava, Prague, Bratislava, Zilina, Hamburg, Moscow and Minsk. The railway station is located only a few minutes walk away from the city's main bus station; this closeness serves to ease passenger movements between the two transit networks. However, by the twenty-first century, the condition of Katowice railway station was visibly deteriorating in places. Specifically, inspections of the building's cup-shaped pillar structures discovered that many has fallen into a poor condition and that correcting this weakness required considerable remedial action to guarantee long-term structural integrity, or would necessitate the building's demolition. Following an analysis of the possible options, it was determined that the facility's wholesale replacement via the site's redevelopment was the preferred option. During June 2009, PKP SA (Polish State Railways SA) unveiled its plans for the modernisation and commercialisation of various railway stations across the country in the near-future, including Katowice railway station. During this announcement, it was revealed that considerable planning activity had already been conducted on the initiative, including the scheduling of investments and securing of finance, as well as detailed modernisation plans, in conjunction with the public revealing of the strategy. 2010s redevelopment During July 2009, it was announced that the Polish government had signed a construction agreement with the Spanish construction firm Neinver, under which the latter would perform the construction of a new integrated transportation hub and commercial center in the middle of Katowice. This programme involved the reconstruction of the existing railway station, along with the construction of an underground bus station, an adjacent shopping center (Galeria Katowicka) and an office