The winner of the tender will carry out construction of the substructure and superstructure for more than 200km of the railway, including earthworks, railway bridges, roads, overpasses and the tracks.
Rail Baltica’s national implemention body in Latvia, Eiropas Dzelzceļa līnijas, is seeking early contractor involvement to carry out the mainline and infrastructure construction works outside Latvia’s capital city, Riga in Latvia. The tender for the construction works will be carried out in two stages. It is expected that the winner will be chosen, and contract concluded at the end of 2022, ensuring that the construction of the new railway line can start in the first half of 2023.
Minister of transport Tālis Linkaits said: “This is an important next step in the development of Rail Baltica that certifies Latvia’s readiness to implement the project as soon as possible. The reconstruction of the Riga Central station section has been proceeding already for a year and the construction of the Rail Baltica infrastructure at the Riga International Airport section has also started. We are now taking key steps to be prepared for the new railway line construction. The construction is intended to be implemented sequentially in accordance with the readiness of the sections. The most technically prepared section up to date is the southern part to the Latvia – Lithuania border. In this way, we can do our best to ensure that Latvia is connected to the European railway system in 2026 as planned and the people of Latvia can assess the benefits of the new railway line for convenient everyday journeys.”
Henrik Hololei, European Commission director-general for mobility and transport, said: “This announcement is good news for Rail Baltica and the North Sea Baltic corridor. The mainline is a key missing link on the corridor and it is essential to bring the Baltic region – from Kaunas, to Tallinn and beyond – closer and better connect it to central Europe. It underlines the importance Latvia attaches to Rail Baltica and is fully in line with the European Commission’s position on the importance of the North-South connection.”
RB Rail chief executive officer and chairperson of the management board Agnis Driksna said: “It is important that despite the different challenges and the Covid-19 impact, all project partners can ensure smooth cooperation and make decisions that are important for further development of the project. This is clearly the case with this procurement. This is the first of upcoming tenders of the Rail Baltica main line that is announced under the new financial planning period 2021-2027. Relatively soon there will be new procurements launched in Estonia and Lithuania, that way also confirming the maturity of the project and the unified implementation of the project at all stages of the route.”
Kaspars Vingris, chairman of the board of Eiropas Dzelzceļa līnijas, said: “This tender will be the largest for the construction of the mainline in Latvia. Early contractor involvement is an internationally accredited practice that allows to consolidate the responsibility for project execution while ensuring the so-called adaptive construction process: construction will be carried out in line with the maturity of the phases of the project allowing more efficient use of financial resources and construction materials as well as to act responsibly within the available EU funding. Such practice secures resource mobilisation of the selected company and allows to provide consultations during the design process what leads to effective construction cost optimisation.”
The railway electrification and signalling sub-systems will be procured through a separate tender.
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