Four tracks: Lund-Flackarp and Flackarp-Arlöv
Lund and Arlöv, Sweden
Merit Award, Rail/Traffic
Presented by OHLA
Owner: Swedish Transport Administration
Contractor: OHLA-NCC JV
Design companies: AFRY; Tyréns Group AB; Centrelöf Holmberg
Transforming one of Sweden’s busiest railway arteries, without stopping a single day of operations, was a challenge for the Fyrspåret Lund–Arlöv project team. The line, which stretches 11 km between Lund and Arlöv, is a key link between the main cities of Malmö and Stockholm.
Its expansion to four tracks from two required engineering ingenuity and precision planning in dense urban environments where space, time and tolerance for error were at a premium.
The OHLA-NCC joint venture faced the logistical puzzle of keeping up to 650 daily trains running while excavating more than 5 km of depressed railway, installing temporary tracks and building a 400 m cut and cover tunnel at Åkarp with D-walls.
Subsurface variability, groundwater management, and the need for millimeter-level precision in a live transport corridor added layers of complexity.
“All activities were carefully planned to avoid operational conflicts, and contingency measures were established to safeguard both workers and passengers,” says José Alberto García Arroyo, regional director of the OHLA. “The complexity of the task required collaboration across multiple disciplines, making this achievement a testament to engineering excellence and teamwork. It was like performing surgery on a moving patient.”
