Rail Baltica - 1435 mm standard gauge railway line development in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania (Part VIII)

ongoing

The Project is part of the pre-identified, cross-border Rail Baltica project connecting the three Baltic States with Central Europe along the North Sea – Baltic Corridor. The aim of the Rail Baltica Global Project (RBGP) (Tallinn-Riga- Kaunas-Warsaw axis) is to develop a new EU track gauge, double-track, electrified, fast conventional railway line (in line with the RBGP Design guidelines) to eliminate the infrastructure bottleneck – there is presently no 1435mm track connection of the Baltic states with the Single railway network (1520 mm network in the Baltic states dominates). This project constitutes the next phase of the eight ongoing CEF Actions and its coherent implementation and interoperability is ensured by applying the Rail Baltica Global Project (RBGP) Design Guidelines. The primary focus of this Project is to progress further and enhance construction of the Rail Baltica high speed railway line. This Project consist of five work packages, that cover majority of geographical location of RBGP, in particular: Work Package 1 - encompasses management tasks that are required for the entire RBGP railway mainline (870 km) and for this Project; Work package 2 - “Tallinn - Riga” section include construction of main line substructure and associated elements, that are critical predecessors to achieve the objective of the RBGP. Work package 3 - “Riga - Kaunas” section focus on further construction of the railway substructure and associated elements in specific section. Work package 4 - Studies focus on the continuation of railway engineering advisory services deployment. Work package 5 - Construction of increase platform height to 760mm in Riga international airport. The expected outcomes of this project are: • In Estonia, the expected outcomes will be the construction and completion of the 14,2 km long section of 1435mm double track mainline substructure together with associated elements and a total of 11 km of 1435mm stabling yard track substructure and associated elements. Parallel works include 3 gas pipe crossings, 7 structures (5 road viaducts, 1 ecoduct, 1 light traffic tunnel) and, the construction of 2 grade-separated road crossings in the Rapla County, including all substructure and superstructure elements. • In Latvia, it is expected to advance Riga city section Southern part and mainline construction works in section Riga to Latvia/Lithuania border by construction of the two sections of railway estacade of approx. 1,3 km in length. Moreover, the construction works to increase the platform height shall be completed at the Riga International airport to fit the 760mm platform height standard unified across North Sea – Baltic Core Network Corridor. • In Lithuania, the outcomes will be the construction and completion of 19 km of railway substructure (embankment, railway civil structures) and access roads on a missing link in the “Kaunas-Lithuanian and Latvian state border” section. Horizontally, the project aims to ensure system engineering, consolidated material supply management (first stage), infrastructure sustainability framework, additional support on shadow operation advisory services and IT- infrastructure to progress the RBGP into large-scale construction activities, it considerably improves the management of construction works, aiding in the reduction of CAPEX, ensuring more streamlined supply of materials in the region and fostering interface management and interoperability throughout the construction phase, as well as for the subsequent takeover of the works concluded.