10 new parks and infrastructure upgrades planned for Vilnius’ most populated districts

During an event in Vilnius Municipality on July 18, 10 architects presented their plans for 10 new parks and infrastructure upgrades, which are scheduled to be built in the city’s 10 most populated districts.

The districts planned for refurbishment are: Antakalnis, Naujioji Vilnia, Naujamiestis, Pilaitė, Naujininkai, Fabijoniškės, Pašilaičiai, Karolinškės, Šeškine, and Lazdynai.

The work will include improving the appearance of Soviet-era residential tower blocks, improving the quality of parks and other public spaces, plus repairing pavements, improving bicycle paths, and installing more street lighting.

Further improvements to infrastructure will see new fountains, new basketball courts for residents, and an indoor velopark in Pilaitė.

“The intention is to improve the quality of life in these districts because they are home to the majority of Vilnius’ residents,” said Vilnius Mayor, Remigijus Šimašius. “These districts also have many Soviet-era tower blocks and generally they do not look very nice.

“The idea is to improve their appearance, and also improve the quality of pavements, streets and a number of other public spaces.

Šimašius added that all work will be carried out in accordance with residents’ needs after his administration carried out a number of public consultations in the districts early in the year.

“We did a number of public consultations and listened to what the residents want,” he added.

Šimašius confirmed that work will begin later in 2016 and depending on the size of the renovation project, could be finished by the end of the year.

“The idea was to finish the work this year,” he said. “However, some of the projects are too ambitious to finish in one year, so we will have to extend the time period.”

Vilnius Municipality will allocate €500,000 from its 2016 budget to the refurbishment of the 10 districts. If the cost of the reconstruction in one district runs over the allocated amount of €50,000 per-district, Šimašius confirmed the municipality will seek additional funding from the private sector.

So far in 2016, Vilnius Municipality has repaired more than 440 apartment block courtyards, repaired around 40 kilometres of streets and pavements, and built more than 9 km of new sidewalks.

All photos by: Saulius Žiūra