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Wooden bridge on the European highway in Norway – made in Latvia

Last year and this year, SIA “IKTK”, a manufacturer of wooden constructions, continues to experience a significant increase in the demand for wooden constructions in construction outside Latvia, including Norway this year has been at an environmentally friendly wooden construction bridge over the mountain river to European important highway E16 between Oslo and Bergen, informs the company.

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Building constructions manufactured in Latvia are increasingly in demand outside Latvia and are being supplied further and further, the trends of the last couple of years have been observed by Gatis Eglītis, the executive director of SIA “IKTK”.

Looking at the end customer’s demand for “ICT” constructions during the last couple of years, in relation to the domestic market, foreign demand has grown from about 70% in 2019 to about 90% in 2020, Eglītis estimates. This tendency is related to the end customer and users, because the builder or supplier could also be a Latvian company. It is clear that in other countries in many buildings they want to replace concrete with wood, it is widely chosen by public and state institutions.

This summer, the glued wood structures produced by IKTK were also used in road bridge structures in Norway, the final customer of which was the Norwegian National Road Administration. It is a crossing over a mountain river on the European motorway E16, which connects Oslo with Bergen in Norway, but generally crosses Northern Ireland, Scotland in Great Britain, Norway and Sweden with a sea break.

For the Tveit bru bridge over the Storåne river, the large bridge components were manufactured and partially assembled at the plant in Ozolnieki municipality, from where they were delivered to the site in nine cargoes – with the last cargo on March 20 this year, but already on June 10. the bridge was opened. This means that from the structures manufactured in Latvia, this 40-meter-long and 9.5-meter-wide bridge was completely assembled and covered with asphalt at a speed unusual for construction of this scale – only in about 80 calendar days, the company points out.

“New technologies, innovations, completely new engineering solutions are very important in this” revolution “of wooden structures, which is undoubtedly also promoted by ecological” green “policies and solutions to climate change. Many objects are like discoveries of architects and civil engineers, some even sensations. , and as electronics and programmers once created the first computers, engineers are now continuing to discover new capabilities for wood. Chairman Maris Peilans.

The entrepreneur has concluded that, unlike manufacturers in various fields, Latvia is technologically slowed down, slow, modest and does not appreciate the advantages of wood over reinforced concrete. “It is completely different with manufacturers. I am glad that not only in the case of drone and complex equipment manufacturers, but also in the case of manufacturers of wooden constructions, we can say: ‘Latvia can!’,” Says Peilāns.

The wood glued to construction continues its winning march in Canada, Austria, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Great Britain, as well as in countries as far away as Singapore, Philippines, Malaysia. Recently, the demand for wood in construction has been growing very rapidly ASV.

In addition, the technology is such that structures can be made in one country and conveniently transported to another country in the opposite hemisphere. Also from the “IKTK” plant at the end of October, the first set of building structures for a wooden building will start on the way to the USA, Eglītis informs.

In addition to the Tweed Bridge in Norway this year and in 2019, SIA “IKTK” works also promoted wooden structures in other structures on an international scale, for example, separate solid wood structures for a nine-storey wooden building in Stockholm, wooden structures for several large projects – “Amberton green SPA” hotel in Lithuania , for a school building in Norway and elsewhere.

Wooden structures of several Latvian objects have also been made “ICT”, for example, Valmiera Viestura for high school.

Last year, the production of new, technologically complex products was started and this year was completed – acoustic panels of bent glued plywood for Mežaparks stage. The sound reflection system of Mežaparks stage uses 510 curved surface shields in 16 different sizes.

In 2019, the 2nd production building of SIA “IKTK” was completed, in which self-produced bent glued wooden constructions were used.

After four years of operation, the preliminary turnover of SIA “IKTK” last year was about 1.3 million euros, but more than 80 thousand euros were paid in taxes. In connection with the paid labor force, personal income tax was paid in the amount of 27.27 thousand euros, but mandatory state social insurance contributions were made in the amount of 56.26 thousand euros.

SIA “IKTK” was founded in 2011, but started operating only in 2015, initially engaged in industrial research and prototyping.

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