To keep potential suppliers and partners informed about the procurement priorities in the second half of 2023, Rail Baltica provides an overview of the ongoing and upcoming procurements.
This year, Rail Baltica focuses on initiating mainline construction in all Baltic States. This includes the construction of mainline objects, related infrastructure facilities, access roads, and the implementation of key services to enhance interoperability and the cross-border dimension of the project. Today, tenders of strategic importance, such as the deployment of the control-command and signalling subsystem, electrification, mainline construction in Latvia, and the first railway sections in Estonia, have been progressing. Additionally, tenders for the supervision of Rail Baltica infrastructure facilities in Latvia, the infrastructure of the Kaunas passenger station territory, the search for a designers for the Vilnius railway node and Vilnius – Kaunas regional connections and regional stations, as well as the Vilnius-Kaunas mainline design and the Kaunas-Polish border mainline design, land acquisition services in Kaunas railway node, Vilnius – Kaunas and Kaunas – Poland sections, expert consulting services for Rail Baltica projects in Lithuania, procurement of qualification assessment system for construction supervision and FIDIC engineer services in Lithuania among others, have been launched.
“As the project embarks on large-scale construction and prepares for the operations phase, the procurement plan highlights the specific areas of focus as we work towards the realization of Rail Baltica,” says Mārtiņš Blaus, Head of the Procurement Department at RB Rail AS. “We have onboarded a wide network of Baltic-based and international partners to work with the project, ensuring the highest level of expertise and knowledge in the market, and we encourage our existing and potential partners to come on board and cooperate to ensure project delivery, connecting the Baltic States with the European standard gauge railway network.”
Key indicative procurements for Q3-Q4 2023 include:
- Construction supervision and FIDIC engineer services for embankment and structures in the Rail Baltica section from Kaunas towards Latvia in Lithuania;
- Installation of upper track construction in the Kaunas – LT / LV border ;
- Design of 1435 mm gauge railway infrastructure in Panevėžys Node (tentatively);
- Design of regional stations in Kaunas – LT/LV border section of 1435 mm railway gauge (tentatively);
- Kaunas – Šveicarija section 0.50 – 19.4 km (18.9 km) embankment and structures: construction supervision and FIDIC engineer services;
- Šėta – Ramygala section 48.8 – 65.9 km (17.1 km) embankment and structures, connecting roads: construction supervision and FIDIC engineer services;
- Independent assessment of infrastructure design for regional connections and regional stations on the Kaunas (Kaunas Node) – Vilnius (Vilnius Node) section of the 1435 mm gauge railway line;
- Independent assessment of infrastructure design for the 1435 mm gauge railway line in Vilnius Node – Services;
- Works for the construction of Northern streets, utilities, and tramline of the Ülemiste passenger terminal;
- Works for the construction Ülemiste passenger terminal’s tunnel;
- Supervision services for the Ülemiste-Soodevahe mainline section;
- Supervision services for the Harju/Rapla county line – Loone mainline section;
- Design of the Rail Baltica Multimodal cargo terminal at Riga Airport;
- Architectural technical support services for reconstruction of Riga Central Station;
- Design and construction of the Rail Baltica Movement Control Center in Latvia (Design & Build);
- Creation of Rail Baltica passenger rolling stock maintenance point in Jaunmārupe (Design);
- Sustainability Development Plan for Resilient Infrastructure Management in Latvia;
- Services of determining the market value of real estate to be expropriated and determining losses for the needs of society and real estate in Latvia;
- Assessment of the state of the Rail Baltica main track design contracts in Latvia;
- Development of the financing model of the state capital company in connection with the implementation requirements of the Rail Baltica project.
Additionally, several other strategic procurements are progressing. For example, the long-term IT Architecture Strategy procurement has been launched and is open for applications until July 24, 2023. Just recently, Rail Baltica informed that the second stage of the Rail Baltica high-speed railway electrification procurement, which is the largest railway cross-border electrification project in Europe implemented as a single project, has been launched. The Control-Command and Signalling (CCS) subsystem design and build procurement is approaching the completion of the first stage.
Detailed information regarding planned procurements, including the contracting authority and the indicative start date, can be found on the official website of the Rail Baltica global project here.
In the beginning of the year, a dedicated procurement webinar was held, summarizing the planned procurement activities and approach. The webinar provided updates on the global project and country-specific procurement plans, along with handy tips and recommendations for potential partners to successfully navigate the tendering process. Watch the recording here.
The construction of the Rail Baltica railway is funded 85% by the Connecting Europe Facility.