On the 31st of January, the opening ceremony for construction of the new 13.6km section of a rail line between the towns of Nykirke and Barkaker, south of Oslo has was held.

The project contractor is the Salini Impregilo/Pizzarotti  Joint Ventureon behalf of Bane NOR, the state-owned company responsible for Norway’s railway infrastructure. The EUR388-million civil works project  will include the building of a 13.6km new double track from Nykirke south of Holmestrand to Barkåker north of Tønsberg , including the three tunnels Kopstadt (900 m), Scotch (3 km) and Gray Point (1.2 km) which is a 5.1km total tunnel length.

Norway has as one of its priorities the establishment of a continuous double-track rail line between Oslo and Tonsberg by 2024. Once the Nykirke -Barkaker section is upgraded, travel time between the two cities will be about an hour, with a frequency of up to four trains an hour in either direction.

Click here for further information on the project and no/22 for tunnelbuilder archive. Visit https://www.banenor.no/, https://www.salini-impregilo.com/en/homepage and https://www.pizzarotti.it/english/default.aspx. 07/20.