Opening up construction of Denmark’s first high-speed railway to competition

The new Copenhagen-Ringsted railway is the largest civil engineering project in Denmark for well over 100 years. Not since the Vestvolden fortifications around Copenhagen were built between 1882 and 1892 as part of the city’s defences has Denmark been the setting for such an extensive building project: a new 60km double-track high-speed railway will be built close to the motorway from Copenhagen via Køge to Ringsted.

Banedanmark, the national rail network operator, is in full swing with this unique construction project, which is also a worthy symbol of the significant investment in the railway that the Danish state will make over the coming decade. Among other things, several existing sections of line will be upgraded to double track, a fast connection will be established for rail traffic between Sweden and central Europe by means of the future Femern tunnel between Denmark and Germany, and Denmark will be the first country in the world to have a new, single signalling system covering the entire public rail network. #

These projects will be realised on an ongoing basis over the next 10 years and, in combination, will enable the Danish rail system to provide the framework for the government’s target of doubling all public passenger transport by 2030 – an ambitious goal given that there are already 170 million journeys made by train each year in Denmark.

Maximum speed: 250km/h

The new Copenhagen-Ringsted railway starts from Ny Ellebjerg Station, a few kilometres from Copenhagen Central Station – from where, incidentally, extra tracks have been built to handle increased capacity in the future. This will make Ny Ellebjerg Station one of the key transport hubs of the future, offering regional and long-distance services with connections to the heart of Copenhagen and to Sweden, as well as Copenhagen’s Metro and S-bane local networks.

From Ny Ellebjerg the line heads south to Køge, where a new station called Køge Nord Station will be built, connecting to the Køge Bugt S-bane, which will also have a new station. From here the line will continue through open countryside to Ringsted. The budget is DKK 10.4 billion, and the railway is scheduled to open in 2018. With a maximum speed of 250km/h, it will be possible to operate a much improved timetable with more departures, shorter journey times and fewer delays.

Scope of the construction work

In the period leading up to 2013, Banedanmark will be responsible for a number of prep – aratory steps including test borings, rerouting water mains and power cables, archaeological studies, compulsory purchases and finalising the route.

The majority of the preparatory work will be finished by the start of 2013. The physical work on constructing the railway will begin in earnest once the ground is frost-free in 2013, although Banedanmark will start building a few bridges in autumn 2012.

Beyond that, the construction work includes:

• A new double-track electrified railway between Copenhagen and Ringsted
• Platforms at Ny Ellebjerg Station for regional and long-distance trains
• A new station (Køge Nord) connecting to a new station on the S-bane network
• Connection at Køge Nord to the Lille Syd railway to/from Køge and Næstved
• An extra track at Køge Station
• Track relaying at Ringsted Station.

Opening up to competition – ideally international

In order to attract as many potential contractors and consortia to the project as possible, the excavation and structural work has been divided into multiple bids ranging in scope from approximately DKK 150 million to DKK 1.5 billion. Elements of the work such as site development, demolitions and other minor contractor tasks also involve fairly small orders worth a few million Danish Kroner. In other words, it is not the intention to offer all the construction work to one contractor in one single large order.

The purpose of dividing up the contract is to ensure maximum competition, so that taxpayers’ money is used as effectively as possible. It is hoped that this approach will spark the interest of contractors large and small, Danish and foreign, in being involved in building the new railway. Banedanmark is especially interested in foreign companies tendering for the work.

A large part of the excavation and structural work is on a ‘design and build’ basis, and these are tenders with negotiation. These instruments mean that the contracting company itself plays an active part in designing the construction and has a large degree of freedom in organising the work.

The construction work has been divided into 25 tenders, covering, for example, the building of approximately 100 bridges, wildlife crossings, rerouting of roads, estab – lishing rainwater basins and shifting 3.3 million cubic metres of excavation residues (a large proportion of which will be reused for railway and other embankments), and terrain regulation.

First sod to be turned in September 2012

The first tender covers five bridges to be built in Brøndby and Vallensbæk, and work will start on this during autumn 2012. Most of the excavation and structural work is expected to be finished by 2015, after which construction of the actual railway line will begin, including foundations, sleepers, rails and overhead wires.

However, the Danish Transport Minister is expected to turn the first sod as early as September 2012. This will be done in collaboration with the Danish Road Directorate, which is responsible for expansion of the motorway between Greve and Solrød along the route of the new railway. The Road Directorate will start work on this in late-summer 2012, and as it is also responsible for building a number of bridges for Banedanmark, the parties have decided to mark the start of the two major infrastructure projects when work on the new railway bridge in Greve gets under way in September 2012.

Construction of Køge Nord Station is expected to start in 2016. There will be test runs, and the new railway will open in 2018.

During 2018, the new railway will be equipped with the pan-European signalling system ERTMS Level 2. This work will be carried out by a different project organisation within Banedanmark.

About the author

Jan Schneider-Tilli is currently managing the project called The New Line Copenhagen-Ringsted, which is Denmark’s first high-speed line. He is educated as Master of Science and in 1992 he began working at the Danish State Railways’ internal engineering company, named Projekttjenesten, as a project engineer concerning large railway projects. From the beginning, Jan has been an expert in the interaction between technique, traffic and socio economics. For about a decade he has worked as project manager and has specialised in early project phases up to construction act (parliament decision). In 2009 Jan began working in Femern A/S as a project director for the railway part of the Femarn Fixed Link project. After the political decision to carry out The New Line Copenhagen-Ringsted was made in 2010, Jan got the job at Banedanmark as Project Director. Moreover Jan is an external examiner at the Technical University of Copenhagen.