Design of Rail Baltica freight terminal in Latvia gets approved
The Latvian State Railway Technical Inspectorate approved the building design of the Salaspils Intermodal Logistics Center (SILC), one of the main rail freight hubs on the Rail Baltica line. Once it kicks off operations, SILC will become “the primary European standard gauge rail freight handling center in Latvia”.
The facility will be roughly 20 kilometres south of Riga, with connections to both the existing broad gauge (1520mm) and the new standard gauge (1435mm) lines. It will also be equipped to handle the transportation of non-cranable semi-trailers. Additional value is brought by the fact that it will be built near the Šķirotava Station, one of the main rail freight hubs in Latvia. SILC will be one of the three main intermodal terminals along the Rail Baltica line together with one in Palemonas (Lithuania), and Muuga (Estonia).
The terminal will cover an area of 200 hectares and its main line will stretch for over seven kilometres. It is not yet clear when construction can actually begin. “The optimization and detailed design of SILC solutions are currently underway, with completion scheduled for the end of 2024”, Rail Baltica mentioned. The design phase is being developed by Latvian engineering and consulting firm BRD Projekts and Italian engineering company Sintagma. The two companies have also cooperated on the design of the line connecting Riga to Lithuania, for which construction should start at the end of this year.
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