The Rail Baltica global project coordinator and joint venture RB Rail AS re-announced the tender for design and design supervision services for the construction of the Kaunas Urban Node – Vilnius Urban Node section. It will be implemented in cooperation with LTG Infra, which is responsible for the implementation of the Rail Baltica project in Lithuania.
The first procurement stage is expected to be completed by the end of 2022 allowing to proceed with the second phase. Contract of design and design supervision services for the construction of a new 65 km long line from Kaunas Urban Node to Vilnius Urban Node is planned to be signed in second half of 2023. Qualification stage applications expected to be submitted by 14 October 2022.
“One of our key strategic goals is to ensure healthy and transparent competition in the Rail Baltica procurements constantly developing the best practice. Re-launch will help to integrate in the procurement regulation revised qualification requirements allowing wider market participation,” said Marius Narmontas, Head of the Lithuanian branch of RB Rail AS.
The subject matter of this competition is to provide design and design supervision services for the construction of railway track substructure, superstructure, as well as related civil structures on the new standard gauge (1435 mm) high-speed double track, electrified railway Rail Baltica line section from Kaunas Urban Node to Vilnius Urban Node. The preliminary scope of the Rail Baltica mainline Kaunas Urban Node – Vilnius Urban Node section consists of 1435 mm gauge railway double track of approximately 65 km length, reconstruction of about 16 km of the existing 1520 mm gauge railway line, 3 passing loops, 10 road viaducts, 1 road tunnel, 13 railway viaducts, 8 wildlife crossings, 15 culverts, and other infrastructure and utilities.
The overall contract is divided into smaller sections. Master design services include such activities as site investigations, design proposals, master designs including the acquisition of building permit. The contract also foresees the provision of Detailed Technical Design and Design Author Supervision services to be provided upon request.
Trains on the Rail Baltica railway line will be able to travel up to 249 km/h. The aim is to remove the present missing link of EU track gauge connection between the Baltic states with the rest of the North Sea – Baltic core network corridor and significantly increase the connections between the main cities along the corridor, efficient synergies with the existing rail network in the Baltics and ensure multimodal connections to roads, ports and airports. It is planned that the Vilnius region will be served by all planned passenger transport services on Rail Balitca: high-speed, regional, and night trains.