We are building new facilities at Tapa Army Base

We have signed a contract with the Estonian Centre for Defence Investment for the construction of additional facilities at the Estonian Defence Forces’ Tapa Army Base in Lääne-Viru County.

At the Madrid summit, it was decided that NATO would strengthen the defence of its eastern flank, including in Estonia, due to the change in the security situation. This necessitates the need to be ready to receive additional allied troops. The purpose of the facilities being added to Tapa Army Base is to enable the reception of more allied units than before and to increase the capability for the presence of allied equipment.

Within the scope of the project, we are building four new universal halls for accommodation in the allied reception area of Tapa Army Base. The size of one building is approximately 500 square metres and can house more than 160 people.

“The purpose of the universal halls is to receive even more allied units concurrently than is presently possible. For example, all four buildings can accommodate a total of over 650 people,” said Randel Lipp, North-eastern Portfolio Manager at the Estonian Centre for Defence Investment.

According to Peeter Laidma, Director of Civil Engineering Division at Merko Ehitus Eesti, the deadline for the project is extremely tight. “The smooth completion of the construction process requires a joint effort and quick decision making by all parties. We have cooperated well with the Centre for Defence Investment in Tapa, Jõhvi and Võru in the past, and we believe that our work together will proceed as smoothly on this site,” added Laidma.

In addition to four universal halls for accommodation, the contract includes the construction of two shower buildings with accompanying external communications and the construction of the road surface surrounding the buildings. In addition to the already existing service station, a completely new and large-capacity service station will be built in the town in order to allow a significantly larger amount of equipment to be refuelled at the same time. In addition to fuel, it is possible to get both AdBlue additive and windshield washer fluid from the same service station, which will significantly speed up logistics and add mobility to units.