Strategic focus on Norwegian infrastructure has secured Artelia yet another major assignment for the coming Oslo Life Science Building.

Back in 2014, Artelia won a number of key construction assignments under the Life Science Building project, which will be a significant extension of the University of Oslo, with a 66,000-sq.m. research and teaching complex for life sciences, chemistry and pharmacology.

Now that the construction work has commenced, Artelia’s establishment of a position in the Norwegian infrastructure market is bearing fruit. We have also been picked as the consultant for the establishment of roads, pathways and a new bicycle-pedestrian bridge. This is particularly due to how we can now offer strong local knowledge, since Artelia Norway has hired several Norwegian specialists. Among them is Ruth Heidi Pedersen, who can put her 24 years of experience to good use as project manager for the infrastructure for the Life Science Building complex.

The assignments are also being undertaken with the assistance of Artelia in Denmark, which is currently designing the 100-metre bicycle-pedestrian bridge via a parameter-controlled 3D design process.

“The bridge has a very special road layout, and we’ve needed to model both the road layout and the design in different variations, and in both steel and concrete, here in the concept phase. We focus on the different parameters in the development process, so that we can work our way forward according to the wishes of the architect and the client, and thereby more quickly adapt the structure, in excellent cooperation with our Norwegian colleagues,”

says Anders Abildgaard, who is part of the Infrastructure division in Copenhagen, and the newly appointed project director of Infrastructure in Norway.

A strategy that works
According to the CEO of Artelia Norway, Sune Wendelboe, the new assignment is a clear indication that the combination of transnational competences and a strong regional presence has proved to be the formula for success in the north:

“We wouldn’t have been able to win this assignment without a clear strategy: to be a locally-anchored consultant, backed by a multi-disciplinary Group. The idea of simply opening an office in Norway and trying to handle the assignments from a Danish Group is not a viable approach. It requires Norwegian specialists and a strong local presence. Then we can start using the skills available within the Group, which is exactly what we have succeeded in doing,”
Sune Wendelboe concludes.

Update: As of 1 December 2022, Artelia Norway is part of Olav Olsen