“We planned the main works for this year much earlier than it was done until now. In some objects, they were started immediately after the end of the technological winter work break. Currently, intensive infrastructure renovation works are underway in many facilities, which will continue until late autumn. During the warm season, road repairs require patience for those who travel more, it is a challenge for us to ensure that all works are carried out exactly as planned, on time, and causing as little inconvenience as possible to road users. However, no matter how many inconveniences the repaired roads cause, it should be understood that they are temporary, and it is necessary to reconstruct the roads in order to make the road infrastructure safer and more convenient in the future”, says Marius Švaikauskas, head of Via Lietuva.
According to the manager of “Via Lietuva”, even more repairs must be done on the roads. Currently, the condition of more than 5,500 out of 21,000 km of highways, highways, regional and district roads maintained by “Via Lietuva” is unsatisfactory, and the condition of another 1,000 kilometers of roads has reached the limit, which means that if no investment is made in the renovation of these roads in the coming years, they will add to the poor condition. status road list. Approximately 6.5 billion is needed to repair the roads, which are in an unsatisfactory and “on the verge” condition. Eur. And this process would take several years.
The situation with bridges is even worse. There are 109 bridges and viaducts in bad condition in Lithuania, of which 99 require additional financing for road structures.
However, it is planned to increase the scale of road and bridge repair works every year.
Road repair works have already started on the busiest Lithuanian highway A1 (Vilnius–Kaunas–Klaipėda). In total, the repair of the road surface will be carried out in seven sections of the A1 road, their total length is as much as 23 kilometers. This is the highest number of kilometers repaired on this highway in the last decade. The repair of all sections of the road planned to be renewed is scheduled to be completed by the end of autumn.
On this highway, the reconstruction works of the Krunas bridge will soon begin, during which, in order to ensure maximum traffic capacity, safety and convenience, first of all, a temporary bridge will be built. The reconstruction works of the A. Meškinis bridge will also continue, the end of which is scheduled for the end of this year.
Perhaps the most important project of 2024 is the renovation of the Molėtai-Utena section of the A14 road, labeled as the worst in Lithuania. The 30-kilometer section is planned to be renovated in just 10 months, ie by the end of this year. The road, which was built almost 50 years ago from individual reinforced concrete blocks, was promised to be renovated a decade ago, but real work started only last year: the section near the town of Utena began to be repaired last year, will be completed this fall, the section from Molėtai to Utena began to be reconstructed in March of this year. , will be completed at the end of this year.
Those going on holiday to the Curonian Spit this summer will also not be able to get past the repair work. It is planned to renew the 10-kilometer section of the road from Alksnynė to Juodkrantė. The work will start next week. Reconstruction of the section of the Smiltynė-Nida cycle path through Juodkrantė towards Pervalka, Preila and towards the sea started in the most beautiful resort of Lithuania in March. The renovation works of the car road and bicycle path in the Curonian Spit will be completed this autumn.
This month, “Via Lietuva” will resume the repair work of the Trakai viaduct, which will continue until the end of the year. In total, in 2024, “Via Lietuva” plans to repair over 30 bridges or viaducts on national roads. Work has already started on some of them (such as the Marvele viaduct, the repair of which will be completed by December of this year). In this part, actions are being taken to prepare for the execution of works (Sargėnai overpass).
Intensive work will also take place in other parts of the country: the renovation of the road “Via Baltica” from Marijampolė to the Lithuanian-Polish border will continue, the Riga-Šiauliai-Tauragė highway will be repaired, the construction of the Jonava bypass (stage I) will begin, other military mobility projects will be carried out, etc.
In total, this year “Via Lietuva” has planned to invest about 88 million in the maintenance of bridges. EUR, road renewal (simple and capital road repair) – about 127 million. Eur.
During the planned campaign, throughout the summer, “Via Lietuva” intends to actively inform road users about the works being carried out on the country’s roads, constantly update their status, use interactive tools at the site of ongoing works and surprise them with unexpected partnership projects – which the company promises to announce soon.
Tags: biggest road infrastructure projects starting countrys roads special campaign patience understanding Lietuva drivers
