Construction, Estonia, EU – Baltic States, Railways, Transport

Anvar Salomets, chief technical officer at Rail Baltic Estonia, said the deadline was moved from Aug. 1 to Sept. 3 primarily in order to meet architects halfway.

"The interest of local and reputed international architects in the competition is rather big. However, based on the feedback we have from the interested parties we found that adjournment of the deadline will enable to submit more thoroughly considered ideas that are best fit for the urban space," Salomets said.

The joint terminal will be established in two stages -- the first stage will include the terminal building along with a terminal square opening toward Peterburi Road and its continuation below the railway in the direction of Ulemiste, waiting platforms for train passengers, streets, also bus stops, parking spaces and other necessary infrastructure. A potential prospective bus terminal will be solved as a draft. In order to establish a comprehensive urban space in the terminal area, the entry is to design potential commercial buildings on a property located on Peterburi Road.

In addition to an idea solution, participants of the architectural competition are expected to calculate the cost of the design work in order to give an initial assessment of the feasibility of the idea. The planned buildings must meet zero-energy building requirements.

The total prize fund of the idea competition is 77,000 euros, which will be awarded to three winners picked by a panel of judges, while two encouragement prizes will also be handed out.

The designing of the Ulemiste passenger terminal of the Rail Baltic railway has been at a standstill since 2014 because when the architectural competition was first announced in 2014, the box marking an international tender was not ticked for the procurement organized by the urban planning department of the city of Tallinn and the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications in the register, even though the costs exceed the then 134,000 euro limit of an international tender by approximately five times. This mistake was discovered four years later, at the beginning of 2018.

The enterprises of the district, foremost Ulemiste City, have already been guided by the competition's winning design by the architects of 3+1 and would not like to abandon that solution. For that, the companies have noted that they can support the project with approximately half a million euros of private money.

However, Rail Baltic Estonia said that it has found the best and without alternative way for going forward with the construction, which means announcing a new architectural competition and does not consider the verbal promise of money by a member of the supervisory board of Ulemiste City to be a substantive offer.