Main part of Estonia's Rail Baltica line to be built by two consortiums
Rail Baltic Estonia (RBE) has declared two international consortiums as the successful bidders in Estonia's largest-ever public procurement. Once the contracts are signed, these consortiums will construct two major sections of Rail Baltic.
At the end of February, four consortiums that had reached the final round of the Rail Baltica construction tender submitted their final bids. Now, two have been selected to build the high-speed railway's Estonian section.
The first mainline contract, covering the superstructure construction of the Ülemiste-Pärnu section and the substructure construction of the Tootsi-Pärnu section, with an estimated cost of €394 million, was awarded to a consortium consisting of GRK Eesti AS, GRK Suomi Oy, AS Merko Ehitus Eesti, NGE Contracting, Sweco Finland Oy, Sweco Sverige AB and TSO SAS.
The second mainline contract, which includes the full-scale design and construction of the Pärnu-Ikla section, with an estimated cost of €332 million, was awarded to a consortium comprising Bouygues Travaux Public, Budimex S.A., INGEROP Conseil et Ingénierie (ICI), KMG Infra OÜ and WSP Finland Oy.
Once the contracts are signed, Rail Baltic Estonia will move into the development phase and a more detailed timeline for the completion of Rail Baltica's Estonian mainline section will be established.
Now that the successful bidders have been selected, background checks on these companies will be conducted in accordance with public procurement law, Rail Baltic Estonia (RBE) announced. This process includes verifying compliance with existing regulations, as well as assessing their track record and financial standing.
If the verification process is successfully completed, preparations for signing alliance contracts will begin. After the alliance contracts are finalized, work will commence on planning and detailed development. This stage includes preparing construction schedules, sourcing materials and refining technical solutions to ensure smooth project execution.
Once the preparatory work is completed and all parties have approved the plans, the project will move into the active construction phase.
Under public procurement law, all parties have the right to challenge the decisions within 10 days, followed by an additional 14-day waiting period.
The goal is to launch rail services between Tallinn and Warsaw by 2030.
--
Follow ERR News on Facebook and Twitter and never miss an update!
Editor: Marko Tooming, Marcus Turovski
