Design work for Rail Baltica will be launched along a combined 139 kilometers in Estonia and Lithuania, including between Tallinn and Rapla in Estonia and Ramygala and the Latvian-Lithuanian border in Lithuania. As a result, design work will be underway along a total of 288 kilometers of the main route for the railway, RB Rail said.

The section of high-speed rail connecting Tallinn to Rapla is 48 kilometers long. According to the preliminary project, the plan is to establish two more substantial constructions along this section, including a 3.5 kilometer peat area in Männiku and a railway junction crossing Tallinn-Rapla-Türi Highway in Kangru. Design services for this section of the railway are to cost €11.4 million.

The length of the section of the route from Ramygala to the Latvian-Lithuanian border is 91 kilometers and, according to the preliminary project, includes three railway bridges, 14 road viaducts, 20 railway viaducts, four wildlife crossings, and an international passenger terminal in Panevėžys. The design of this section is to cost €8 million.

The procurement includes design services for the construction of the railway's basic structure, superstructure and related civil facilities. It also includes field studies, finding the optimal project solution by comparing alternatives, as well as detailed technical design. The work must be carried out within a period of 24 months. The contractor will also ensure design supervision services until the construction work has been accepted in full.

IDOM, the winner of the design tender, will realize parts of the contract in cooperation with local businesses. In Estonia, the local partner is Skepast & Puhkim OÜ. Peeter Skepast, a member of the management board, noted that the volume and complexity of the project are extraordinary in the context of Estonia, adding that the schedule is ambitious as well.

Aivar Jaeski, RB Rail's Estonian and Finnish coordinator, said that the design of the Tallinn-Rapla section of the railway will be one of the most complex along Rail Baltica's route.

Procurements launched for entire Estonian section

A total of 7 of 11 procurement procedures for detailed technical design services for Rail Baltica's main route have been launched in the Baltics, accounting for 57 percent of the entire length of the railway and 100 percent of the route from Tallinn to the Estonian-Latvian border.

Rail Baltic is a double track, European standard 1,435 millimeter gauge electrified railway for passenger and freight transport to run 870 kilometers from Tallinn to the Lithuanian-Polish border.

RB Rail AS is the central coordinator for the Rail Baltica project. RB Rail shareholders include Lithuania's UAB Rail Baltica statyba, Latvia's SIA Eiropas Dzelzceļa līnijas, and Estonia's Rail Baltic Estonia OÜ.

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