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The ambitious Rail Baltica construction works at Riga Central Passenger Station and its connections will be performed by BESIX RERE GROUP
The association of the persons from “BESIX RERE GROUP”, composed of the companies N.V. BESIX S.A. (Belgium) and LLC “RERE BŪVE” (Latvia), has concluded a contract on the Rail Baltica Riga railway bridge, railway embankment and Riga Central Passenger Station complex building design development and construction works.
On 29 May 2019, a contract was signed with the introducer of the Rail Baltica project in Latvia – “Eiropas Dzelzceļa līnijas”. The extensive contract, which contains 10,000 pages together with annexes, combines the requirements for object designing and construction, wherein BESIX RERE GROUP - according to this contract - will carry out the full development and coordination of the construction design as well as construction works, assuming full liability for the implementation of the project.
As a result of the implementation of the Rail Baltica project, a modern, multi-modal traffic hub will be created at the centre of Riga, which will increase mobility, safety, accessibility and also provided new features to Riga, visually and functionally connecting parts of the city thus far separated by the railway embankment as well as conveniently connecting both banks of the Daugava River for pedestrians and cyclists by a new railway bridge.
“For us, signing this contract means the continuation of the previously commenced large and extensive work, performed by RERE GRUPA and attracted experts already when preparing the tender application. Receiving the rights to implement construction designing and the construction works of the transport flow artery that is so significant for Riga, Latvia and all of Northern Europe, we have obtained not only extensive and challenging work for the following years, but also the highest quality cooperation, based on innovative and the latest world class engineering solutions”, indicated Guntis Āboltiņš-Āboliņš, the Chairman of the Board of JSC “RERE Grupa”, when signing the contract.
Members of the association of “BESIX RERE GROUP” have considerable international experience in the design and construction of railway, public and private buildings and objects. The Belgian company N.V. BESIX S.A. stands out in railway and station building by such projects as the reconstruction of the Utrecht railway station in the Netherlands, construction of Bijlmermeer ArenA station in the Netherlands, extension of Mechelen station in Belgium, construction of three-level multi-modal underground railway and subway station Schuman in Brussels (under the European Parliament and monumental historic building), construction of the new Dubai tram line, including several bridges and stations, Brussels Regional Express Network as well as other similar objects and many thousands high-speed railway lines in various places worldwide. The most recognisable projects in the building sector are the highest building in the world Burj Khalifa in Dubai, Carpe Diem skyscraper in Paris, Mall of Egypt with 380 stores in Cairo, Ferrari World entertainment park and Cleveland Clinic hospital in Abu Dhabi as well as many other projects. Currently, active construction final stage works are implemented in the Grand Egyptian museum in Cairo.
The international company RIZZANI DE ECCHER will be involved in the fulfilment of the contract, which has worldwide experience in the design and construction of bridges, overpasses, subways and railway stations.
“BESIX RERE GROUP” will implement the design and construction works according to the solution selected for the draft tender – the station and surroundings development project draft, developed by the architect’s office “PLH Arkitekter” in cooperation with “COWI” (Denmark). It includes a 2.6 km long European track gauge railway stage in Riga from Lāčplēša Street to Jelgavas Street, 6 new railway overpasses across Lāčplēša Street, Dzirnavu Street, Prāgas Street, Maskavas Street, Mūkusalas Street and Jelgavas Street as well as a new 1 km long bridge across the Daugava River and the Little Daugava River. The developed construction design provides for replacing the existing railway embankment with an overpass in the stage from the coach terminal to Stockmann shopping centre and from Riga Central Railway Station to Elizabetes Street, for further railway traffic organisation. Removal of the embankment will enable the visual and functional connection of two parts of Riga: Old Riga and Latgale suburb, opening a view to Riga Central Market from Old Riga. In addition, the passenger tunnel under railways (i.e. tunnel C) will be reconstructed for the convenience of pedestrians. Riga will also gain a new street, as Elizabetes Street and Timoteja Street will be connected.
About the course of the international procurement tender
On 21 April 2017, the introducer of the Rail Baltica project in Latvia – the company Eiropas Dzelzceļa līnijas announced an international public procurement with two rounds “Rail Baltica Riga railway bridge, railway embankment and Riga Central Passenger Station design and build project” for the development of construction design as well as ensuring the author's supervision and performance of construction works. In the 1st round of the procurement, qualification tenders were received from 7 international associations, including the major Latvian construction companies. In the 2nd round of the procurement, which was announced in August 2018, the competition was continued by 6 international associations – professionals of the highest calibre with global experience in the design and construction of railway and bridge infrastructure.
On 3 December 2018, their 2nd round tenders were submitted by two tenderers: “BESIX RERE GROUP” and “ITL Rail Baltica”. The price offered by “BESIX RERE GROUP” (excluding VAT) was EUR 430,538,203.00, whereas the price proposed by “ITL Rail Baltica” was EUR 545,454,000.00. This was the final stage of the international procurement, after which the tender evaluation commission made the decision to conclude the contract with “BESIX RERE GROUP”, entrusting to the procurement tender winner the implementation of the design and construction works.
About Eiropas Dzelzceļa līnijas
Eiropas Dzelzceļa līnijas is the introducer of the Rail Baltica project in Latvia. Eiropas Dzelzceļa līnijas will carry out the implementation of the Rail Baltica project in Latvia in accordance with the concluded financing contracts between INEA (Innovation and Networks Executive Agency), which is the executive agency of EU Connecting Europe Facility, and RB Rail AS, which is a joint venture of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, authorised by the Baltic states to sign financing contracts as well as responsible for the implementation of joint activities within the Rail Baltica project.