Prointec, Indra’s civil engineering subsidiary, will participate in the largest railway infrastructure project in Europe, Rail Baltica. This is a rail network for passengers and goods linking the Baltic countries, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-t).
The three countries have formed a joint venture, RB Rail As, to manage the project. It has awarded Prointec, in consortium with German engineering consultancy Obermeyer Planen + Beraten GmbH, the engineering design and design supervision of a 93.5 km section of the works for a total of 10.8 million euros. The section runs between the Estonian city of Pärnu and the border with Latvia.
According to the preliminary design, this section will have nine railway bridges, fifteen road overpasses, eleven eco-ducts (false tunnels for wildlife passage) and 148 small drainage works. It also includes three passenger stations and one freight station.
The greatest innovation in the project is the use of the BIM (Building Information Modeling) methodology applied to civil works, an area where there are hardly any precedents. Prointec, one of the few companies with capacity to work with this methodology, will use BIM to create and manage the construction project with a “high degree of detail.” It will centralise all the information in a 3D digital model, where even the steel reinforcements in the concrete structures will have to be replicated.
The use of BIM technology will allow for simulations, optimising the design, improving sustainability and will also achieve significant savings. According to official data, by 2025 large-scale digitalization will generate annual savings of 13%-21% in the design and construction phases of the infrastructure, and 10%-17% in the operations phase.
