photo: Rail Baltica. org/Rail Baltica
One of the biggest projects for the next ten years, the Rail Baltica secures a contract with Certifier SA for the safety assessment services (AsBo) for the entire Rail Baltica line. The contract was provided by the project coordinator, RB Rail AS, together with national implementors Eiropas Dzelzceļa Līnijas, Rail Baltic Estonia, and LTG Infra. The deal is worth EUR 4,5 million securing Certifier as the only safety assessment provider throughout the design, construction, and integration phase.
To get authorization for opening a new line, compulsory evidence of safety evaluation needs to be delivered to the national safety authorities. The Certifier will prepare the final safety assessment reports for the future 1435 mm gauge line.
‘One of the preconditions for a successful Rail Baltica megaproject implementation is to secure common standards and procedures across the project, especially when it comes to different safety and security aspects’, said Marc Philippe el Beze, Chief Technical Director and member of the management board of RB Rail. ‘Involvement of AsBo at an early stage of the project is an important step to ensure that Rail Baltica infrastructure, energy, control-command, and signaling subsystems will function safely and reliably.’
The risk assessment service provider (AsBo), as an independent, external, and certified body, is authorized to carry out the analysis and evaluation of the risk according to Implementation of Common Safety Methods and Risk assessment (CSM-RA) in accordance with the European legislation.
“Being part of Rail Baltica, one the biggest projects of these next 10 years, was then for us a must-have and we are proud and excited to be the Assessment Body, one year after being awarded the notified body,” Pierre Kadziola, Certifier SA Chief Executive Officer said.
Rail Baltica is a railway infrastructure project planning to integrate the Baltic States in the European rail network. It is the largest Baltic-region infrastructure project in the last 100 years. The electrified double-track will have a total length of 870 km with a maximum speed of 249km/ for passengers and 120 km/h for freight trains.
The project includes five EU countries- Poland, Lithuania, Latvia Estonia, and indirectly also Finland. (Helsinki is connected by rail ferry services across the Gulf of Finland). Rail Baltica is the missing link in the North Sea-Baltic TENT-T Corridor. Of the estimated 5.8 billion euros overall construction cost, 85 percent is being financed by the European Union (CEF) with Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania each contributing an additional five percent.
Source: Wikipedia
Source: RailBaltica.org