MILAN, January 31, 2020 – Salini Impregilo and joint-venture partner Pizzarotti have started work on a section of a rail line between the towns of Nykirke and Barkaker south of Oslo following a ceremony led by Norwegian Transport Minister Knut Arild Hareide, who laid the first stone. The project will facilitate fast, modern and sustainable transport along the east coast.

Commissioned by Bane NOR, the state-owned company responsible for Norway’s railway infrastructure, the €388-million civil works project will upgrade a 13.6-kilometre section of the line.

Norway has as one of its priorities the establishment of a continuous double-track rail line between Oslo and Tønsberg by 2024. Once it 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. The project will also favour economic development beyond the Norwegian capital.

The contract joins a growing number of projects being developed by Salini Impregilo in support of sustainable mobility. In Copenhagen, it recently delivered the Cityringen metro line, which will give a boost to the Danish capital’s efforts to become the world’s first carbon-neutral capital. In Paris, the Group is working on the Grand Paris Express, an extension of the city’s rail and metro network to connect better the periphery with the centre.