At the 2018 Annual Awards of the Latvian Builders Association, the Freeport of Riga Authority project “Construction of additional infrastructure on Krievu Island” received one of two GRAND PRIX awards for the most ambitious and significant project in 2018. The Annual Awards of the Latvian Builders Association are the largest construction industry awards in Latvia with 143 contenders in 10 nominations. The second GRAND PRIX went to Mežaparks Song Festival Bandstand reconstruction and the Song Festival Bandstand spectator area project.
“Additional infrastructure on Krievu Island” project is the second phase of the largest Port’s investment project “Development of infrastructure on Krievu Island for the transfer of port activities from the city centre”. The project’s second phase was commenced in 2017 and included design and construction of 5 facilities. All utility services, such as power supply cables, water supply and sewerage were installed, as well as cargo platforms and railways built. Cargo platforms were paved with concrete slabs and asphalt. In order to ensure compliance with environment protection requirements and to care for life quality of people in surrounding city areas, a wind fence was built around the cargo platforms. The design and construction work was performed by PA ACB8, which consists of two companies, the main partner A.C.B. and 8CBR.
The jury and experts awarded the highest ratings to the 23-metre high and more than 2 km long wind fence erected around the cargo platforms. The most important function of the wind fence is to effectively dampen the effects of dominating winds on coal piles and prevent coal dust from being lifted up into the air and ending up in the environment.
A member of the panel of judges, structural engineer Kārlis Vilkaušs: “Evaluating the project from the quality viewpoint, we should distinguish certain industrial projects with unique solutions, for example, the wind fence on Krievu Island where complex wind load calculations have been made.”
A member of the jury, construction engineer Igors Šenbergs: “At the same time, large projects should be rated by the courage to implement complex and unique solutions that have not yet been used in Latvia. Those cannot be called innovations, as the technologies are already known in the world. In Latvia, people dare to take risks and try to get to the depth of things rather than build something standard. Courageous steps drive the industry. For example, the wind fence on Krievu Island and the Mežaparks Bandstand solutions have brought new experience for their customers, designers and builders.”
We are pleased to congratulate our colleagues from the Infrastructure Development Department of the Freeport of Riga Authority on receiving the award. Special thanks to the Project Management Department for their work and knowledge invested into the second phase of the Krievu Island project.