The €13m winning bid for the first Latvian design tender is from a Spanish consortium of Idom Consulting, Engineering and Architecture and Ineco.

The contract, which is expected to be signed in June, covers a 56km section of the Rail Baltica high-speed line through Riga. This comprises three sub-sections: Upeslejas - Riga Central station, Tornakalns - Imanta and Riga International Airport - Misa River.

The consortium will be responsible conducting site investigations, value engineering, developing the master design, and detailed technical design. It will also supervise the design during construction.

Progress

So far, seven out of 11 tenders for detailed technical design services for the Rail Baltica main line have been launched in the Baltic States, covering 57% of the entire line. In Estonia, detailed technical design procurement is underway for the entire line from the Latvian border to Tallinn and first design contract was signed in March.

In Latvia, two out of four Rail Baltica design tenders have been launched around the Riga Central section. Two more design tenders will be launched in June for the sections towards the Estonia and Lithuania borders.

In Lithuania, the first Rail Baltica design contract for a section from Kaunas to Ramygale was signed in April, and tendering is underway to design two out of four sections from Kaunas to the Latvian border.