Skanska wins Norway rail job

A Swedish builder just landed a Norwegian rail contract that runs until late 2029, and the job is not a station or a bridge on its own. Skanska says it will build the Stange–Otterstad section of a new double-track railway for Bane NOR under a contract worth NOK 1.2 billion, with work starting in May 2026. (skanska.com) A double-track railway means two parallel tracks instead of one, so trains do not have to wait in sidings for oncoming traffic to pass. Skanska and Bane NOR both say this section is meant to raise capacity and improve reliability on the line. (skanska.com) (banenor.no) The stretch sits in Stange municipality, north of Oslo, on the route toward Lillehammer. Bane NOR describes it as part of the Intercity triangle, the core rail buildout linking Oslo with Lillehammer, Halden, and Skien. (skanska.com) (banenor.no) What Skanska won here is the groundworks package, which is the heavy early-stage civil work that makes the railway possible before trains ever run. Bane NOR says that package covers the execution work between Stange north and Ottestad and is scheduled to begin in May 2026. (banenor.no) Bane NOR is not a private train operator shopping for projects on its own. It is the state-owned company under Norway’s Ministry of Transport that develops, operates, and maintains the national railway network. (banenor.no) (regjeringen.no) That is why a NOK 1.2 billion award to one contractor points to a larger public spending plan behind it. Norway’s National Transport Plan for 2025 to 2036 says the country will keep modernizing rail and other transport links under a long-term framework approved after the government presented the plan on March 22, 2024. (regjeringen.no 1) (regjeringen.no 2) The plan is not only about speed. The government’s summary says recent transport investment has focused on modernization, maintenance, and resilience, with climate goals and even military mobility now part of how projects are prioritized. (regjeringen.no 1) (regjeringen.no 2) So this contract is one piece of a familiar European rail story: governments are paying for extra track where single-track bottlenecks still limit how many trains can run and how often delays spread. On this line, adding a second track through Stange gives Bane NOR more room to separate trains in both directions instead of threading them through the same narrow slot. (banenor.no) (skanska.com) For Skanska, the timing also matters financially. The company says the order will be booked in its Nordic orders for the second quarter of 2026, which means the project shows up in the pipeline now even though the railway itself is scheduled to finish more than three years later. (skanska.com)