Eiffage, Budimex and Rizzani de Eccher win in consortium the civil engineering and track-laying works of the 230-kilometre Latvian section of the Rail Baltica project

The contract was awarded by the public company Eiropas Dzelzcela Linijas (EDZL), who is national implementing body of Rail Baltica in Latvia, acting on behalf of Ministry of Transport of the Republic of Latvia. The public company RB RAIL AS, made up of and run by Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, is coordinating this priority project for the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T).

The contract, which includes 175 engineering structures and 11 animal crossings, is estimated to €3.7 billion. It will be subject to several multi-annual purchase orders. 85% of this project is financed by the European fund Connecting Europe Facility and 15% by the Republic of Latvia.

The future cross-border railway line will enable to further the development of a single European market thanks to the development of trade facilitated by interoperability between the various transport networks (land, river, and air). It will also contribute to increase the share of the most environmentally-friendly modes of transport.

The section won by ERB Rail will be designed at 249 km/h for passenger trains and 120 km/h for freight trains.

The mobilization of the work team is scheduled for the first semester of 2024 after receiving notice to proceed of the first 13-kilometre section whose financing is secured up to €165 million.

Within the consortium, Eiffage, a major player in construction and concessions in Europe, was involved in the Bretagne - Pays de la Loire high-speed line in France and is participating in works on the UK High Speed 2 line linking London to Birmingham. Rizzani de Eccher is already working in Latvia on the construction of the Rail Baltica Riga Central Hub, and Budimex is the leading construction company in Poland.

Photo credit : EDZL