Ramboll appointed lead consultant for redevelopment of Pulkovo Airport

Competition was fierce to win the 30 year contract tendered by the city of St Petersburg for the development, modernization and running of Pulkovo. Northern Capital Gateway – a consortium consisting of Fraport AG, Frankfurt Airport Services Worldwide, VTB Bank Europe plc and Copelouzos Group – won the contract, which represents one of the largest PPP projects in Russia and one of the most ambitious aviation projects currently underway in Europe. Ramboll supported the winning bid with a comprehensive technical offering that reflects its many years' experience working on terminal buildings and airport infrastructure around the world.

"Quite simply it's one of the biggest jobs we've ever done," comments Director of the UK Pulkovo Team Seamus Maguire. "We've got 200 people working on it across all our offices in Russia, the UK, Denmark and Sweden. This project is exploiting Ramboll's global strength in managing a multi-discipline, multi business-unit project."

Key challenges include delivering the architect-designed terminal building to a high BREEAM rating, the retention and integration of a Listed terminal structure, and the requirement to achieve an incredibly fast-track programme: the aim is to complete Phase 1 by 2013.

An impressive track record in aviation projects

Ramboll UK will take the lead on engineering the new terminal building. With an impressive track record in aviation projects including new terminal buildings such as those at Heathrow, Luton and Gatwick to name a few, the UK team is well placed to address the design challenges associated with this scale of project. Ramboll's Aviation division, meanwhile, brings years of expertise working on airport infrastructure, particularly in Nordic climates where weather-sensitive programme scheduling is critical. And Ramboll Russia brings an invaluable knowledge of the local market, without which no design team could operate competitively.

Architectural consultancy is being provided by Grimshaw, whose competition-winning design formed the basis of St Petersburg contract tender to the consortium market. The delivery architect for the terminal building is Pascall + Watson.

Situated 20km from downtown St Petersburg, Pulkovo airport is currently ranked as Russia's fourth largest aviation gateway after the three major Moscow airports. At present it has two runways, one domestic and one international passenger terminal. When the redevelopment is complete Pulkovo will have a capacity of 17 million passengers per year.

"This significant contract win confirms our ability to successfully compete for landmark projects," comments Ramboll CEO Flemming Bilgaard Pedersen. "We have developed a high degree of airport-specific expertise within specialised fields over the years. This project confirms our ability to provide multi-disciplinary engineering excellence on a global scale."