Esri, based in California, recently secured an enterprise agreement with RB Rail AS to implement its geographic information system (GIS) software across all project units, according to Bussinesswire.
"As the Rail Baltica project progresses, the amount of data that needs to be managed grows significantly, as do the needs of its GIS users, so the Esri Enterprise Agreement was a natural choice to ensure strengthening the capabilities of GIS in the Rail Baltica project," Raitis Bušmanis, head of the Virtual Design and Construction department at RB Rail AS, told Businesswire.
Rail Baltica spans 541 miles and the three Baltic countries: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The purpose of the project is to strengthen the European Union's Rail Infrastructure sustainability and improve the quality of passenger and freight service between all the central and northern European countries and rail systems involved.
Under the terms of the deal, Esri will help engineers contributing to the project plan, construct and manage maintenance for all innovation efforts. Serving as a connector, the software will store and handle all of RB Rail’s asset data in a unified spatial database.
"We are proud to sign this agreement with RB Rail AS, representing the application of GIS across its enterprise as the foundation of a system of systems," Ian Koeppel, Esri's international business development lead for transportation markets in Europe, told Bussinesswire. "Enabling these large international projects to create location-intelligent digital twins is a big step toward building a sustainable European infrastructure network."
The project will be carried out using the holistic approach suggested by the company’s new GIS system, which also has the ability to customize its settings according to the real-time demands of plan routes, and environmental precautions.
"GIS technology is universal and allows integration of various data formats and easy sharing of information with project partners — for example, to review design data, monitor construction progress, track deadlines, and manage and maintain asset registers," Bušmanis said, according to Businesswire. "We believe that collecting the design and construction data during those stages will have a huge benefit during the operations and maintenance phases, making them more efficient and cost-effective. Good quality and structured data are key components for assuring sustainable operations of the Rail Baltica digital infrastructure, and Esri's ArcGIS solutions can help us get there."