JP-Transplan, an offshoot of Finnish consultant Jaakko Pöyry, has won an assignment from Sweden’s Botniabanan AB to design a 10 km section of the rail company’s planned 190km high-speed railway from Nyland, north of Sundsvall, to Umeå.
The entire railway, costing US$1.1bn, includes 30km of tunnels, 29 stations and 150 bridges and will help improve communications along the Gulf of Botnia when completed in 2008. Trains using the single-track, coastal railway will have a service speed of 250kmph.
JP-Transplan’s president Matti Mannonen said: "For JP-Transplan, the design project is an important opening to the Swedish market. The Swedish traffic infrastructure market is threefold in size compared to the Finnish market. JP-Transplan is the first foreign railway designer in Sweden." Lemminkäinen Construction, the Swedish subsidiary of Finnish contractor, Lemminkäinen Oy, has already won two tunnelling contracts on the project.
The first involves drilling a 480m long rock tunnel, together with associated earthmoving and embankment work over a 940m stretch between Gideälven and Husum, north of Örnsköldsvik under a US$4M deal.
The second contract covers construction of a 1.92km tunnel and associated embankment work between Örnsköldsvik and Husum.
Botniabanan AB, a private rail company which has been specifically set up to develop the single-track Botnia rail line, also plans to invite tenders for eight more tunnel sections over the next 12 months. Work on all contracts is due to start in 2003.
These cover a 3.2km tunnel on the Ångermanälven to Offersjön section, the 6km long Namntallhöjden on the Offersjön to Bodtjärn section, the 5.2km long Björnböleshöjden tunnel between Bodtjärn and Nätraån, three tunnels totalling 1.1km on the Nätraån to Gålnäs section, the 2.1km Varvsberget between Sträckan Gålnäs and Örnsköldsvik and the 1km Åsberget tunnel between Örnsköldsvik and Arnäsvall.
