Rail Baltica Central Station

The works include the construction of the Central Station in Riga, a major railway bridge on the Daugava river, the railway embankments and track works. Besides the new facilities, the joint-venture will also install, plan and coordinate all temporary infrastructure to ensure rail traffic flow during the works.

• The Central Station building has an area of 12,600 m² and consists in a long-span steel structure with a 2,100 m² glazed roof. The works also include the passenger platforms, the renovation of the existing station building, pedestrian tunnels, the junction between Timoteja and Elizabetes streets and associated demolition works.
• The new railway bridge, with a total length of 1,056 metres, will be installed next to the existing one over the Daugava River, from Maskavas to Jelgavas streets. It has a slender design to blend in with the architecture of the city. Its construction comprises embankments, emergency access and safety barriers as well as the improvement of adjacent areas.
• The companies will install new rails and a new catenary system over a 2.5-kilometre distance within the city of Riga. The installation of the new rails involves the reconstruction of the 1520 mm gauge track as well as the construction of 1435 mm gauge infrastructure complying with the European rail network standard. Temporary rails will be installed during the works.
• The project includes relocating existing utilities, obtaining building permits and managing stakeholders.

Eiropas Dzelzceļa līnijas (EDzL), the executive agency of the Latvian Ministry of Transport for the implementation of the Rail Baltica project in Latvia, has awarded the joint venture BESIX–SIA RERE BŪVE-Rizzani de Eccher the contract to design and build the Rail Baltica Central Station project. The contract was signed on 29 May 2019 and is worth 430 million euros. The project is financed by the European Union via the Connecting Europe Facility (85%) and the Republic of Latvia (15%).
The Rail Baltica Central Station project is part of the 5 billion euro Rail Baltica Project, whose objective is to integrate the Baltic states in the European rail network. It is the largest infrastructure project in the Baltic region for a hundred years. Financed by the European Union, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, it covers a distance of 870 kilometres and will connect the railway infrastructure of the Baltic states with Northern and Western Europe. Historically, the Baltic states have been part of the West-East rail corridor using the 1520 mm track gauge instead of the European rail network’s 1435 mm gauge.