Mesta's head Marianne Bergmann Røren calls the Norwegian government to to bring the dates for expected tunnel works to earlier dates. This is in Norwegian press among others at bygg.

While Marianne Bergmann Røren praises the Statens vegvesen (Norwegian Public Roads Administration) for its willingness to give more work to the construction industry in this coronavirus/Covid-19 crisis, she thinks the potential is far greater than the 600 million that the Norway's government placed in the "Crisis package 3". The government-owned Mesta AS was up until 2003 the construction division of Statens Vegvesen.

The head of Mesta believes tunnel maintenance/upgrade projects need to to added on top of it. Marianne Bergmann Røren says in addition, 55 tunnel upgrades must be included in the package. She says these 55 tunnels on the national highways must be upgraded by 2025 anyway to meet the European Union requirements. So she says it is a matter of bringing the days forward. She says new work must be released now and not tomorrow.

She says Norway is far behind schedule already. So this is an opportunity to close the gap. Some of the tunnels to be upgraded are smaller, so the work can start much earlier along with existing other contracts. She says these days present great opportunity for maintenance work because the traffic is down due to the coronavirus crisis. She asserts that additional work would be a win-win situation for the country.

Marianne Bergmann Røren says she feels for the employees that she laid off and for the businesses on the verge of bankruptcy. Mesta has recently laid off 100 people. It is estimated to supply work for 3200 people including its subcontractors and suppliers

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Mesta AS is a Norwegian government enterprise delivering services within construction and civil engineering of roads. The company is owned by the Norwegian Ministry of Trade and Industry and has its headquarters at Lysaker outside Oslo. The company was created in 2003 when the construction division of Statens Vegvesen (Norwegian Public Roads Administration) was split from it to be a separate limited company. Mesta has to compete for each government contracts just like any other company.

After the restructuring og 2008 the Mesta now consists of eight fully owned subsidiaries: Geo Survey, Eiendom (Property), Entreprenør (Entrepreneur), Asfalt (Asphalt), Stein (Rock), Elektro (Electro), Drift (Operation), and Verksted (Maintenance). They are also structured as own entities and are limited companies

Marianne Bergmann Røren joined Mesta AS on 1 September 2019 as the CEO. Previously she was the Global Head of the COO Office in Danske Bank, Corporate & Institutions with responsibility for International Units Business Units, Business Development, middle office and risk management.

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http://www.bygg.no/article/1429649