On November 22, 2017, the Rail Baltica project implementers and national regulatory bodies – RB Rail AS, Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communication of Estonia, Rail Baltic Estonia OU, Estonian Technical Regulatory Authority, Latvian State Railway Technical Inspectorate, SIA Eiropas Dzelzceļa līnijas, Rail Baltica Statyba UAB, and Lietuvos Geležinekliai – met with SYSTRA S.A., a consulting and engineering group which previously in an open competition was awarded to develop unified design guidelines for the Rail Baltica project. The objective of the meeting was to discuss the progress of the Design Guidelines and to align on the next steps as Rail Baltica’s implementation has entered the Design phase.
“This was the second and the most important stakeholder meeting on the Design Guidelines to discuss progress of the study and identify remaining issues as the Design Guidelines’ elaboration approaches its final stage. Also, one of the aims of the meeting was to align views on the design values that the final study should embody,” said Jean-Mark Bedmar, Senior Engineer of RB RAIL AS.
The discussion also addressed key parameters to be included in the design guidelines study – main technical parameters affecting Rail Baltica performance, civil works and structures’ standards, earthworks, cross-sections as well as Electrification system and European unified signalling system (ERTMS).
All parties have agreed in principle on key design criteria as well as next steps to finalize the study. RB RAIL AS as the contracting authority expects the contractor to deliver the Final report of the Design Guidelines study this year in December, for approval by RB RAIL AS and the three Baltic states for the further implementation in the Detailed Design studies.
The Design Guidelines of the Rail Baltica railway developed by SYSTRA S.A. will provide engineers with a standardized approach to the Rail Baltica design, which will be mandatory for the design, construction and operations of the Rail Baltica infrastructure. The design guidelines will allow to ensure railway interoperability and accelerate the railway design and construction process.