Mälarbanan

Infrastructure
Water

The Mälarbanan is an important part of the railway network and connects Örebro, Västerås and Enköping with long-distance and regional train traffic to Stockholm. The capacity on the line needs to be expanded and Norconsult has won the assignment to design the surrounding works on the Huvudsta-Spånga section.

To increase the train capacity west of Stockholm, Trafikverket (the Swedish Transport Administration) is expanding the Mälarbanan with several tracks. The track area will be covered in places to free up land for urban development. Norconsult's assignment includes the design of the water re-arrangement of 500 management objects as well as the planning and design of traffic measures for the car, bicycle and footpaths that are affected.

The assignment covers all the different phases of the project, such as preliminary study, preliminary design, preparation of building documents. In addition, we will be the client's technical support during construction. The task organization is spread all over the country with production groups in e.g. Växjö, Jönköping, Gothenburg, Borlänge, Luleå and Stockholm, and consists of just over 100 resources.

In the project, we use our standardized innovation process, which can be used on a number of different issues and thereby contribute to optimal and cost-effective solutions.

Photo: Kenneth Hellman, Trafikverket

Challenges

The big job on the route will be covering the tracks when they are drawn through central Sundbyberg and finding workable sustainable solutions at Solna, considering the expansion of the railway but also future development plans. To succeed with such a large and complex project, you must have clear goals in the various phases, good structure and order. A decisive success factor will be maintaining good communication during the course of the work with both the 18 management owners as well as the Swedish Transport Administration, the municipality, contractors and track and BEST designers so that everyone involved moves in step. And to find the most time- and cost-effective implementation.

The assignment today

The assignment is now in an intensive phase with around 10 construction parts in progress. Especially in the spring of 2020 when six construction documents are delivered for the Sundbybergsdelen. In Stockholm, construction of one part of the building is underway, and during the summer of 2020 four more five parts will be started.

The project around the Mälarbanan is part of "Trafiksatsning Stockholm", which also includes Citybanan and Förbifart Stockholm, among other things. The Huvudsta-Spånga stretch is planned to start construction in 2022 at the earliest, and it is estimated that the construction time will be around eight years.