Italian civil engineering company Condotte has appointed Finnish consulting and engineering firm Pöyry to carry out rock and tunnel engineering to build a section of the Follo Line in Oslo, Norway.
Under the deal, Pöyry will carry out most of the design needed for 5.5km of tunnels close to Oslo city centre, 4km of which is for high-speed rail traffic.
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The project is designed to meet the demand for increased rail traffic capacity caused by the growing population in the greater Oslo area.
Connecting Oslo with Ski in the Follo district, the Follo Line will be the longest tunnel system in Norway.
The line will have a total length of 20km and is designed for trains to run at up to 250km/h, serving an estimated 150,000 passengers daily after its completion in 2021.
Condotte was awarded the Nkr1.2bn ($158.37m) engineering procurement and construction (EPC) contract last February for this section from Norwegian national rail administration Jernbaneverket.
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By GlobalDataAs part of the project, the tunnel will be excavated using drill and blast, and drill and split methods, while all engineering will be carried out as building information modelling (BIM).
Scope of work under the deal will also include relocating the underground Alna River.
Pöyry Infrastructure Design president Mikko Inkala said: "This is the first large transportation engineering assignment we have won in Norway.
"Our experts in Norway and Finland are working jointly to tackle the challenges of the assignment in an innovative and reliable way that is characteristic to our work."
Work under the deal signed last February, Condotte is responsible for the construction of twin-tube Follo Line tunnel between the exit of the three-track tunnel and 1.2km into the mountain/hillside, including the cross passages between the tunnels and the crossing of Ekeberg Oil Depot.
