Within the international tender for the provision of engineering consultancy and construction supervision services for the construction of the Rail Baltica main line in Latvia, applications submitted by four candidates have been assessed. Three candidates from three countries – Italy, France, and Spain – are proposed for the second round of the tender.
Companies which met legal and experience qualification requirements set out in the procurement were Italferr S.p.A. (Italy), SYSTRA S.A. (France) and the association of persons consisting of Tecnica y Proyectos S.A. and PROINTEC S .A.U. (Spain). Work on the preparation of the documentation for the second round of the procurement is currently underway, and the tenderers will be obliged to submit their financial and technical proposals in this round.
Kaspars Vingris, Chairman of the Board of Eiropas Dzelzceļa līnijas, national implementing body of the Rail Baltica project in Latvia, points out: “The tender for construction supervision services is being held in parallel with the largest procurement for the construction of a railway line in Latvia. Both tenders – construction of mainline and its supervision – are taking place with the aim to start the construction works of the main railway line outside Riga in 2023. For us as a client it is essential to establish a competent and experienced construction and supervision team to carry out construction works in compliance with the highest Rail Baltica safety, operational, environmental accessibility, and sustainability requirements. We are happy to see that like our other tenders of Rail Baltica implementation, companies with world-class experience have applied for participation in this tender. The involvement of internationally experienced contractors and engineers gives growth and transfer of knowledge to the Latvian construction sector.”
The engineering consultant and construction supervision service provider of the Rail Baltica main line construction works in Latvia will be obliged to provide supervision of construction of Rail Baltica railway main line outside the Riga city limits – railway base and superstructure – spanning more than 200 km, including site preparation, embankments, construction of railway bridges, roads and overpasses, utility relocation and track construction, as well as contract management and compliance control. Given the scale of the project and the complexity of works, and applying best practice of European countries, construction supervision and contract management will be carried out by the so-called FIDIC Engineer in accordance with the FIDIC White Book. The contract with the successful tenderer is expected to be concluded at the end of 2022.
Funding of this project in the amount of 81–85% is provided by the Connecting Europe Facility, whereas the remaining part – by the budgets of the three Baltic States.