Today, President Toomas Hendrik Ilves, Minister of Internal Affairs Hanno Pevkur and Director General of the Police and Border Guard Board Elmar Vaher solemnly laid the cornerstone of the Piusa border guard cordon in Võmmorski Village, Võru County, which will become one of the bastions of guarding the land frontier of Estonia.
Commissioned by Riigi Kinnisvara AS (State Real Estate Ltd, RKAS), Nordecon AS will be constructing a complex of buildings which would be fully appropriate for the work arising from the functions of the border guard cordon, would meet the established requirements, would be as durable and long-lasting as possible from the maintenance perspective, and would demand as low maintenance costs as possible. In the course of the works, the existing obsolete cordon building was demolished and a new one will be built in its place.
According to the Minister of Internal Affairs Hanno Pevkur, the Piusa cordon will become one of the bastions of the land frontier of Estonia. “After renovation of the Piusa cordon, all cordons on the eastern border will be in good order and, in addition to the border guards, there will also be decent living conditions provided there for the people working at the Koidula border crossing point,” the Minister added.
According to Jaak Saarniit, Chairman of the Board of RKAS, construction of the border guard cordon is not even close to the company’s largest development projects, but it is hard to overestimate its importance to Estonia. “We will be building the most modern security building in the country here, the functioning of which must fully support the security of the area as well as Estonia as a whole,” Jaak Saarniit added.
“Throughout the years, Nordecon has successfully constructed several important buildings on the border of Estonia, such as the Luhamaa and Koidula border crossing points as well as a number of cordon buildings, the Piusa project is a logical continuation of that list,” said Jaano Vink, Chairman of the Board of Nordecon. “As a constructor, we are happy to be able to help to fortify the security of the country in our own way.”
In construction of the Piusa cordon building, the architecture characteristic to the surrounding area will be taken into consideration and modern solutions will be introduced to the existing architectonics. The aim of the external architecture of the building is to fit into the existing environment as well as possible.
The total surface area of the three-storey main building and the auxiliary buildings exceeds 2500 square metres. The architect of the building complex is Magnar Meinart, the building design documentation was prepared by AS Amhold.
The project is a significant investment on the Estonia-Russia border which is designed to improve the security on the external border of the European Union and NATO. Among other things, the Piusa cordon will also become an important base for the special border guard unit.
Construction of the new border guard cordon will cost approximately 4.6 million euros in total, plus value added tax. The construction works commenced in March this year and are scheduled to be completed in the spring of 2016.
