NRC-YIT tasked with construction

The city of Espoo early this week approved the award the construction contract of the planned Raide-Jokeri light rail line connecting Helsinki and Espoo to NRC Group Finland (NRC) and YIT, a large Finnish construction company.

As the city of Helsinki has in the recent past already approved NRC and YIT as the construction contractors, no further political approval is seen as necessary for and before the official contract signing, said the NRC press release.

The contract awarded to the joint venture of NRC and YIT is worth €220m, which on final official confirmation of the contract will become the largest one awarded to NRC and the joint venture it is leading to date. The contract value covers both the designing and the construction phases. According to the preliminary railway project design, the construction of rail tracks is aimed to commence in June 2019 and the project implementation is scheduled to end in June 2024.

Once constructed, the Raide-Jokeri light rail line will be a fast railway connection between Itäkeskus in Helsinki and Keilaniemi in Espoo, offering ffaster and more reliable inter-city public transportation and increased passenger comfort. It is also seen to create opportunities for new residential constructions alongside the rail line. The greater Helsinki region is estimated to be the home of approximately two million residents and will provide over one million jobs by 2050. The planned railway will support the regional goal of steering increased mobility in a sustainable mode of transportanion for the growing population.

The railway project will be executed under an alliance model, which means the cities of Helsinki and Espoo as well as the contractors NRC and YIT, and the consulting companies Ramboll Finland Oy, Sitowise Oy and NRC Group Finland Oy would merge into a lone client organisation. NRC and YIT however will shoulder the task of constructing the railtracks as well as shouldering the risks and benefits derived from the project implementation.

NRC has been involved in all the five railway-related alliance projects undertaken in Finland, including the Tampere tramway, which is the largest ongoing alliance project, and the renovation of the Lielahti-Kokemäki railway, the first public infrastructure alliance project in Europe.

“We are very proud to be an alliance partner in the construction of the Jokeri light rail line, reflecting several years of hard work by NRC Group Finland. In terms of size and scope it is a record project for us and a confirmation of the position we have built as the leading Nordic rail infrastructure company,” said NRC Group CEO Øivind Horpestad.

The formal contractual signing of the alliance contract is expected to take place on or around 22 May 2019, without any political or valid legal objections expected to be raised.