Currently, there is enough money to build 40 kilometers of the Rail Baltica main line, said Ēriks Diļevs, CEO of “Eiropas Dzelzceļa līnijas” Ltd (EDzL), in an interview on the Latvian Radio program “Good Morning” on December 10.
The construction contractor of the main line of the Rail Baltica project in Latvia – the general partnership “E.R.B. Rail JV” – has been officially instructed to start construction works on the main line.
Construction on the main section will start in the Bauska region near Iecava. So far, 14 hectares have been deforested in Iecava, while 9 kilometers of the main route have been deforested on an area of almost 100 hectares. In Iecava, site preparation, stump breaking and soil stripping will start soon, Diļevs said.
He explained that a regional base would be set up in Iecava to store the minerals needed for construction.
“The Iecava regional base will initially be set up as a construction materials stacking yard, from which bulk materials will be delivered along the railway corridor towards Lithuania,” he explained.
Funding is currently available to build 40 kilometers of the main line, and EDzL is preparing an application for the next Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) call, the EDzL CEO said.
According to EDzL, the main construction works include the construction of Rail Baltica outside the city limits of Riga. The construction contractor will have to ensure the construction of the main infrastructure of the Rail Baltica railway line for about 230 kilometers – construction of track substructures and superstructures, including land preparation, embankments, construction of railway bridges, roads, underpasses, overpasses, relocation of engineering networks, installation of rails.
The main line constructor, the international joint venture E.R.B. Rail JV, is registered in Latvia and was established by three of Europe’s leading engineering and construction companies in the road, rail, steel construction and large concrete construction sectors: Eiffage Génie Civil SAS (France), Budimex S.A. (Poland) and Rizzani de Eccher S.p.A. (Italy).
