EUROPE: Rail Baltica project promoter RB Rail and the national project implementers Eiropas Dzelzceļa Līnijas, Rail Baltic Estonia and LTG Infra have awarded Certifer a €4·5m contract to act as the single safety assessment services provider throughout the design, construction and integration phases of developing the future 1 435 mm gauge line.
The AsBo will deliver the final safety assessment reports forming a mandatory part of the evidence which must be provided to the national safety authorities to receive authorisation for opening the new 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, on October 12. ‘Involvement of AsBo at an early stage of the project is an important step to ensure that Rail Baltica infrastructure, energy, control-command and signalling subsystems will function safely and reliably.’
Certifer CEO Pierre Kadziola said the French railway certification company has in recent years worked on the Paris - Bordeaux, ‘Basque Y’ and High Speed 2 projects, as well as conventional lines in Denmark and Belgium. ’Being part of Rail Baltica, one the biggest projects of these next 10 years, was a “must have” for us, and we are proud and excited to be the assessment body, one year after being awarded the notified body contract’, he believed.
