Ramboll to assist European Southern Observatory in tendering the largest construction contract in the history of the organisation the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT)

Orestad, Denmark, 23-6-2014 — /EuropaWire/ — On Thursday 19 June, a new giant and ultra-advanced telescope came one step closer to materialisation when part of the 3000-metre peak of Cerro Amazonas was removed to prepare the summit for the building activities.

To gain more knowledge about the composition and development of the universe, the astronomy organisation European Southern Observatory (ESO) took the decision in late 2012 to build a new, large and revolutionary telescope.

The telescope will be the largest ever made: the dome itself will be almost 100 m in diameter (the size of the Colosseum in Rome), and as such it has also been named the ‘European Extremely Large Telescope’ (E-ELT). The telescope will enable astronomers to identify galaxies more than 13 billion light years away or search for life on planets around other stars in our galaxy, The Milky Way.

”This is an extremely ambitious project with colossal challenges, both technically and from a planning perspective. We see it as a great opportunity to further develop our skills within the field of “Big Science”,” says Lars Ostenfeld Riemann, Group Director at Ramboll.

Largest construction contract in history of ESO

The E-ELT project has a total budget of EUR 1,083 million. Ramboll’s first task will be to assist ESO in tendering the largest construction contract in the history of the organisation, namely the dome and main structure contract.

The telescope will be constructed on a mountain top in the northern part of Chile and is expected to make its first observations in 2023.

Read more about ”The European Extremely Large Telescope” here or watch the official trailer for the E-ELT project here:

E-ELT Trailer from ESO Observatory on Vimeo.

More information

Lee Leston-Jones
Director
Phone +44 (0)161 827 1890
E-mail lee.leston.jones@ramboll.co.uk

Lars Ostenfeld Riemann
Group Market Director, Buildings
Phone +45 5161 6897
E-mail lor@ramboll.com
Website www.ramboll.com

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Ramboll to assist European Southern Observatory in tendering the largest construction contract in the history of the organisation the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT)