Rail Baltic Estonia has announced the construction procurement for the first stage of the Ülemiste terminal building, in the framework of which a builder of the load bearing structures under the railway at the Ülemiste joint terminal is sought, the estimated cost of the tender is 66.5 million euros.
As a result, an underground level and other related railway facilities will be built. The construction of the structures will take place after the demolition of the existing railway and must be completed before the construction of new railways, requiring close cooperation from the infrastructure contractor and the terminal construction contractor.
“We are procuring the construction of the Ülemiste joint terminal in stages, and now that the procurement for the reconstruction of the railway infrastructure has ended, we can move forward with the next stage, which is the construction procurement for the concrete structures under the railway. In essence, we are procuring the underground part of the terminal building,” said Marko Kivila, Head of Operations at Rail Baltic Estonia.
According to Kivila, the construction works will not affect current train traffic. “Passengers can use the existing waiting platforms until the spring of 2025. In the spring of 2025, train traffic will start at the new location and passengers will be able to use the new waiting platform,” he added.
Three bids were submitted by the deadline for the construction tender for the reconstruction works of the railway infrastructure related to the joint terminal, which was announced in September and ended recently, all three of which corresponded to the price level expected in the tender.
The purpose of the construction works is to rebuild the existing Ülemiste railway infrastructure to make room for the Rail Baltic 1,435 mm gauge railway to be built in the future. For this purpose, nearly 16.3 kilometers of existing tracks must be demolished, and more than eight kilometers of new 1,520 mm gauge railways will be built instead.
During the works, functioning train traffic must be ensured on the main tracks, and for this, the current relay-based traffic control system will be temporarily reconstructed. In addition to the railway works, the scope of the construction procurement also includes the reconstruction of utility networks crossing the railway and the Kantsi viaduct.
Construction permits for the execution of the works have already been issued and most of the railway works must be completed during 2024, but the contractual works will continue until 2026. The wish is to conclude the contract with the best bidder still this year to start the works in 2023.
The design work for the Ülemiste railway infrastructure was carried out by OU Reaalprojekt and OU Allspark. The author and designer of the architectural solution of the Ülemiste terminal are Zaha Hadid Architects and Esplan OU.
The deadline for the submission of bids for the procurement of construction works for railway facilities at the Ülemiste passenger terminal is January 5. If the procurement is successful, construction will begin in the spring of 2023 and is planned to last until the third quarter of 2026. After that, the construction of the architectural part of the terminal building will begin.