Europe's Megaproject to Replace Russian Railways

This is one of the largest new railway projects in Europe and aims to fill a major gap in the continent's high-speed network, which is more than 800 km long and runs through three countries that have lacked a modern railway since the fall of the sovietic Union. Scheme that is posing immense challenges as one of the EU's transport priorities throughout this decade. The pressure is on to get it right with spectacular engineering, advanced technology and world-class design. This is how the Baltic States are using large infrastructure to position themselves. firmly on the map now, if you are a regular follower of this channel, there is a good chance that you have heard of the Trans-European Transport Network.

It is a massive EU plan to connect member states to high-level infrastructure, mainly by rail, the massive Fon belt. fixed link the Leonin railway the Brena Bas tunnel are all part of it known for its enormous scale and the countries involved, but now there is a new player emerging in the East, while actually three new players are the Baltic states of Estonia Lavia and Lithuania Together they make up a large part of the North Sea Baltic Corridor from Antp to Helsinki, one of the network's main priority routes, and yet these nations' rail infrastructure lags far behind that of their neighbors Westerners since before the early 90s.

The war, why, because that was when the Soviet Union, of which everyone was a part, collapsed. Left Behind was a series of railroads that ran primarily east-west rather than north-south, meaning the three countries aren't all that well connected on top of that. They were built to a different standard to the rest of Europe, which isn't helpful when trying to unite the entire continent, so what are they going to do about it? Build a great new railroad from scratch and call it that. ra Bala, the largest infrastructure project in this region for 100 years, Real Baltica is a massive infrastructure project that connects three Baltic states and brings significant changes to the region and the main objective of the project is to improve regional connectivity.

Foster economic growth and promote sustainable transportation. It is an 870 km high-speed railway from Talin in Estonia that reaches Lithuania, the Polish border and eventually the rest of Europe. The trip between the capitals will take just over 3 and a half hours, which is shorter than G With the Wind, frankly, dear. I don't give a damn that you should Clark Gable because that's really fast. Both high-speed passenger trains with a speed of 249 km per hour and freight trains running at about 120 km per hour are going to use this line and the entire route being electrified will help reduce CO2 emissions and the air pollution by more than 18% compared to other forms of transportation since 2023.

Construction sites have been increasing and, as you can probably imagine, there is a lot going on, the history of robotics goes back in time. About 30 years ago, but today I can see that most of the designs are in the final stage, so we are still doing the designs in the three Baltic states, but also in parallel, for a couple of years they are being done massive construction jobs to break everything. below for you let's take a quick tour of the main sites from top to bottom starting with what will be the northern end of the railway it all starts here in ulist on the outskirts of talin this is where the spectacular new passenger terminal designed by zahar deed is located Architects have now created Broken Ground an international gateway to Estonia right next to the country's main airport.

It will act as a multi-modal transport hub and public bridge, and rail passengers will be offered seamless connections to bus and tram routes. and everything is being built using a modular approach. Excavation for the station building is now in progress along with the foundation and supporting structures. It took longer than planned to unearth old infrastructure in other parts of Estonia. The construction of new crossings where cars, trains and wildlife will pass. Intersect has been the focus which includes a 73 M flyover, four viaducts over the future railway already open to traffic and an ecological conduit. What do we mean by that well?

Obviously it is like a viaduct, but the upper part will only be used by animals, this is made of 54 concrete arch elements weighing 25 tons each, all connected to each other to form a tunnel further down in Laia, where they are building more than 200 bridges. The trains will take a circuit towards the capital or continue south. Lithuania is in Ria where much of the action is happening at the moment, such as the impressive new station which is already taking shape when completed and which will become the largest passenger services center in the Baltic in terms of visitor numbers , with a total area of ​​almost 13,000.

Squ M and a huge glass roof By the end of 2023, the bases of the seven arches that will cover the building were in place and are now being joined a short distance away there will be a new bridge over the Dogal River, trains will use it. to reach the airports and its construction is now in the early stages, a lot of work is also being carried out at the airport itself, the Boler international passenger rail terminal will become the first high-speed rail and air traffic connection center speed in the region. Until now it has been mainly underground in the foundations of the station building and more than 500 piles that will support the platforms that go down more than 30 m digging below the surface, you don't always know what you are going to find. and that has certainly been the case in circulation where crews are preparing to build the main line.

Technicians had to clean up a former military site that was destroyed during World War II, scattering unexploded ordnance all over the area, which is not ideal when trying to do geology. Studies as the next piece of infrastructure a few kilometers to the south here a second new bridge over the port is in the works, but this one will carry trains and cars. The double bridge, which will be double-decker on the first floor, will be high-speed. train on the second floor we will have cars and it is in btic state something new now before the teams can start building they need to know more about the ground conditions under the river that is why a floating platform was installed with a large drill that allows experts Collecting samples to test the results will allow engineers to determine how deep the foundation should be before assembling the bridge.

Staying with Bridges to find the next big bridge on our journey. We need to cross the border into Lithuania, where the route will branch. two directions towards Vilas and cus with a total length of 392 km Lithuania has by far the largest part of the line and this bridge over the NYS river of more than 1,500 M long is definitely one of the highlights for which installation is being carried out. using a huge drilling machine. 376 piles once completed, a metal structure followed by a concrete pore is inserted into each hole. 11,500 tons of reinforcement and 74,000 cubic meters of concrete will be needed to build it.

Finally, Vilus, the capital of Lithuania, will also receive a new station dubbed Green Connect. The idea was an integrated center that would once again serve as a bridge surrounded by nature and open public spaces. It will have a roof made from locally sourced Timber Water Gardens to process rainwater and the integration of a heritage building from the original station so that the The big question is how much is all this going to cost and when will it be ready? Well, the original estimate was about $6 billion with a completion date of 2030. Up to 85% of the money comes from the EU and the rest is financed by the three Baltic countries. states, but reports in Ivia say costs have now risen to around $8 billion.

It is claimed that there have been delays and uncertainties with some of those sites in RGA which could cause the line to bypass the city when it first opens, then there is the sheer complexity of it. Building a railway across a country is difficult enough, but when you cross three of them it becomes extremely challenging. Each state has its own separate body for project teams. Teams have to collaborate closely across borders and there are currently hundreds of active contracts. It's kind of challenging, sometimes we call each other like three brothers, sometimes cousins ​​because we are not that close as our legislations are different, languages ​​are different and even the mentality is different, but thanks to digital technology, several organizations have been working together seamlessly to bring Ra Bala up to date.

In Spain, Edom is responsible for the design and supervision of the construction of a large part of the new line. The role in the Real Baltica project has been to be responsible for the design of 389 km of the Baltic Corridor. Our scope of works includes railway and Road Bridges H viaducts, including the longest bridge in the Baltics, used a number of Bentley systems applications, such as open building and project designer, edum established a data environment connected that allowed teams to collaborate through 3D models and detect conflicts during design. The benefits of Regarding the project, it allows us to have a legitimate source of information, in this way everyone can have real-time access to this information and it is also always updated, so it gives less room for errors even though not everything It goes according to plan.

A system like this has certainly increased the Baltic's chances of having a high-speed rail line in operation before the end of the decade. For years the Baltic states have been clamoring for a railway on par with the rest of Europe and there are early signs that the wait will have been worth it. Of course, it has not been easy, these projects never are, especially when there is so much in game, but like many of the other big infrastructure projects taking place across the continent, the top three countries won't be the only one set to win it's part of a much bigger picture with one missing piece now is being put into place this video was sponsored by Bentley Systems you can learn more about this in the link below and as always guys if you enjoyed this video and want to get more from the ultimate construction video channel be sure to subscribe to b1m.