Rail Baltica weighs AI and digital tools for site safety

Rail Baltica will bring infrastructure executives, construction contractors and occupational safety specialists to Riga on 4 November 2026 for its annual Industry Day. The hybrid meeting, under the theme Building Safety Culture: Health & Safety on Europe’s Largest Construction Sites, will look at health and safety on a major cross-border railway programme and draw on experience from large European projects, including Britain’s HS2.

Construction is advancing in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania as Rail Baltica builds a European-standard-gauge railway linking the Baltic states with the wider European network. Multiple contracts, different national rules and overlapping civil engineering work make safety management demanding. Earthworks, bridges, viaducts, drainage, utilities, railway systems and access works often share restricted areas with construction traffic, lifting and temporary works.

European occupational safety law offers a common frame, while implementation and enforcement stay with national authorities. Contractors must meet local legal requirements and the project’s wider health and safety expectations. RB Rail AS, the central coordinating organisation, is using the event to encourage more consistent practice among implementing bodies, contractors and supply chains as activity expands.

Marko Kivila, chairman of the management board and CEO of RB Rail AS, said Rail Baltica is one of Europe’s largest cross-border infrastructure projects, involving thousands of people, multiple contractors and sites across three countries. He said the responsibility is not only to deliver the railway but to ensure that everyone involved can work safely, and that safety must be embedded in leadership, planning, procurement and everyday operations rather than treated as a separate requirement.

Procurement, programme sequencing, subcontractor supervision and time allowed for safe working shape site conditions long before individual tasks begin. On a programme with many delivery organisations, those decisions also have to account for neighbouring contractors and the movement of people and equipment between work areas.

Dan Kirby, head of quality, safety, health and environment at Eiffage Génie Civil, will give the opening keynote, The Safe Construction Site of 2026: From Compliance to Safety Culture. His HS2 experience covers tunnelling, viaducts, major earthworks and interfaces between delivery organisations spread over a large area. An international panel, Learning from the Giants: Safety on Europe’s Megaprojects, will discuss contractor coordination, common standards and shared lessons. Deep excavations, heavy lifting, temporary structures and work near operational transport corridors are familiar hazards even when contracts and national rules differ.

A dedicated session, Tech on the Toolbelt: What Actually Works on Site, will look at digital safety tools, artificial intelligence, reporting systems and training technologies. Speakers are Alfredo Soreiro, vice president of the International Safety and Health Construction Co-ordinators Organization (ISHCCO), and Associate Professor Karin Reinhold of Tallinn University of Technology.

Digital permit-to-work systems can make authorised activities easier to see. Mobile reporting lets site staff record hazards and observations from the working environment. Connected equipment and proximity detection can help manage contact between machinery and workers. AI-assisted image analysis can flag potentially unsafe conditions in camera footage, though reliability depends on training data, the operating environment and how alerts are reviewed. Layouts, lighting, equipment movements and activities on construction sites change often.

Privacy and trust are part of the discussion. Camera monitoring, location tracking and automated behavioural analysis can involve personal data, so organisations must weigh data protection, proportionality and the involvement of employees and their representatives. Where identifiable workers are monitored, the General Data Protection Regulation is an important framework. Some AI uses in employment and worker management may also face extra requirements under the EU AI Act, depending on purpose and the applicable provisions. Poorly set systems can produce too many alerts, and hard-to-use reporting platforms can discourage participation.

The closing session will compare how safety principles are applied on Rail Baltica’s national programmes. Representatives of Rail Baltic Estonia, Latvia’s Eiropas Dzelzceļa līnijas and Lithuania’s LTG Infra will join construction and health and safety specialists. Ground conditions, access, contractor experience and the sequence of works can differ even inside one programme. Shared approaches to incident reporting, induction, safety observations and lessons learned still need clear responsibilities among project owners, construction supervisors and the companies doing the work. As construction grows, vehicle movements, temporary access, lifting and changes to site boundaries will increasingly affect neighbouring contracts.

Rail Baltica Industry Day 2026 is on Wednesday, 4 November, in Riga, with online participation for international attendees. It is aimed at infrastructure owners, engineering and construction companies, project managers, health and safety professionals and construction technology providers.