Design highvoltage pylon Bog Fox

CEF logo ENG

The first Estonian design highvoltage pylon Soorebane (Bog Fox), Estonia’s first design highvoltage pylon, was ordered by Elering and completed in July 2020 near Risti small town in Lääne County.

Soorebane, built near the region of the intersection of Ääsmäe-Haapsalu and Risti-Virtsu highways, is 45 metres high and weighs 38.5 tons. The designepylon has been made of COR-TEN steel, which gives the pylon its characteristic rusty hue. The diameter of the trunk of the pylon is 1.66 metres at the thickest part and the maximum thickness of the wall is 22 millimetres.

Elering organised the first design contest of this type in Estonia in 2016 in cooperation with the Estonian Association of Architects in order to find the artistic solution for the design pylon. The panel of the international contest chose the work “Soorebane”, with its authors being architects Sille Pihlak and Siim Tuksam from Part OÜ, as the winner from a total of 18 solutions submitted by 15 participants.

The details of the pylon were manufactured 2,000 kilometres away in Romania and transported on three lorries and in 11 parts to Estonia in the beginning of July 2020. The workers of the original manufacturing plant welded the main details of the pylon in a rest area on the Risti-Virtsu highway a few kilometres from the final location of the pylon.

Soorebane carries the power lines on the HarkuLihula-Sindi 330/110 kilovolt high-voltage line. The design contest organised to find the design solution for the design pylon was awarded the title of the best procurement in 2016 in the Estonian Design Awards 2016 competition. Soorebane received two awards in the competition for the construction project of the year organised by the Estonian Association of Architectural and Consulting Engineering Companies in 2020. The pylon was awarded the first prize in the contest “Digital Innovation Project of the Year” as well as “Construction Project of the Year” in the category of civil engineering works. The design pylon received its most prestigious award in the Annual Awards of the Estonian Association of Architects 2020 where it was chosen as the winner of the annual award in the category “Small”.