Vilnius Doubles This Year’s Funding for Road Surfacing; 54 km of Streets to Be Paved

A record amount – 22 million euros – is planned for the street maintenance of the capital. 11 million euros will be allocated from the National road maintenance and development programme of the Republic of Lithuania, and the same amount – from the city budget. There has never been so much financing allocated for street maintenance from the budget; it is nearly three times more than the amounts allocated last year and also the year before. Tomorrow, Vilnius City Council will discuss the proposition to double the funding for road surfacing and add 5.8 million euros to the already allocated 5.2 million euros.

As the weather is warming up and asphaltic concrete plants have started their operation, big road maintenance teams will be sent to the capital’s streets to cover streets and gravel roads with asphalt. This year alone, approximately 54 km of streets will be paved, 8 km of which are gravel roads. By the length, it equals to 29 Konstitucijos Avenues. The work will start on the streets of Lazdynų, Verkių, Vilkpėdės, and Naujininkų districts where a new asphaltic concrete pavement will be laid; afterwards, the work will relocate to other districts of the capital as well. The works will be performed at night time so that the citizens of Vilnius would suffer less inconvenience.

“For the second year in a row, the living environment improvement programme is successfully implemented in Vilnius. The citizens have already benefited from the impact of this programme. This year we are not going to slow down and we will increase the efforts, as well as the funding of the city infrastructure upgrading. Having replaced the companies carrying out the street maintenance this year, we managed to reduce the service fees twice, which will allow executing the planned works at a significantly cheaper rate. We are estimating that within three years, i.e. during the whole period of the contract, we will manage to save around 7 million euros of the budget funds,” says the Mayor of Vilnius, Remigijus Šimašius.

The municipality has established a very clear and transparent system used for planning street paving works: the streets with the heaviest daily traffic of public and private transportation are a priority. In addition, the most damaged streets requiring maintenance with the most ruts and bumps are at the top of the list. Pits are covered in the majority of the streets; part of the streets will be paved by continuous asphalting when the pavement of a whole road section will be changed. The streets are also repaired, having taken into consideration the citizens’ requests.

The maintenance of as many as 40 road sections in the capital is planned; those will be major renovations. Continuous asphalting will be laid on Geležinio Vilko St. (from the overpass to A. Goštauto St. till the bridge of the Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences), Nemenčinės Road (from Turniškių St. till Kairėnų St. at the city exit), Pergalės, Naugarduko (from Švitrigailos St. till the bypass), Šilo, V. A. Graičiūno streets and Laisvės (from Lazdynų St. towards Karoliniškės) and Pilaitės (from V. Pociūno St. till Smalinės St.) avenues, Škirpos Avenue, at the crossroad of Žemaitės St. and Savanorių Av., on Žvėryno Bridge and Geležinio Vilko (from Gerosios Vilties St. till Čiurlionio St. overpass), S. Batoro (from Peteliškių till Rudens St.), Dūmų, Uosių, Pramonės streets, Šilo Bridge, Apkasų, Krokuvos, Stanislovo Kerbedžio, Kovo 11-osios (from Mokyklos St. till Kunigiškių St.), Rygos, Gelvonų, Mileišiškių (from Mileišiškių Sodų St. till Viršupio St.), Moliakalnio (from Pylimėlių St. till Stanislovo Kerbedžio St.), Kalno, Raistelių streets, Senojo Gardino Road, Karių Kapų (with curbs and sidewalks), Šilėnų, Zujūnų, Jaunystės, Dvaro, Ragučio, Noragiškių, J. Janonio, Karačiūnų, Skroblų (from No. 8 till Naugarduko St.), Vandentiekio (from Gerosios Vilties St. till the pedestrian overpass), and Zuikio streets.

“In July, we will start the major repairs of one of the longest streets of the capital, Geležinio Vilko Street. This year we intend to lay a new asphalt pavement in the section of Geležinio Vilko St. which has not been repaired for over a decade, from the overpass to Goštauto St. till the bridge of the Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences, on one side towards Vingis Park and from Gerosios Vilties St. till Čiurlionio St. overpass towards the city. We have allocated over a million euros for Geležinio Vilko Street repair”, says the Deputy Mayor supervising economic matters of the city, Linas Kvedaravičius.

Renewal of the pavement will be carried out in other streets of the capital: Nemenčinės Road (from Turniškių St. till Kairėnų St.) Dariaus ir Girėno, Taikos (from Rygos St. till Autobusų žiedo St.), Paberžės, Kovo 11-osios, A. Kojelavičiaus, Pašto, Motorų, Taikos (from Taikos St. 1 till Justiniškių St.), Sausio 13-osios, Gabijos (from Pašilaičių St. till Gileikių St.), Subačiaus (from Drujos St. towards Markučių), Popieriaus, Krokuvos, Šešuolių (between Justiniškių and Viršuliškių St.), A. P. Kavoliuko (from L. Asanavičiūtės till Sietyno St.), V. Grybo (with curbs and sidewalks), Dzūkų (from Liepkalnio St. till Gudų St.), Žemynos, R. Jankausko, and Medeinos streets.

This year, 15 km of new sidewalks, which is twice as much as last year, will be laid in Vilnius’ Naujosios Vilnios, Naujininkų, Naujamiesčio, Pašilaičių, Žvėryno, Rasų, Žirmūnų, Šeškinės, Antakalnio, Karoliniškių, Vilkpėdės, Fabijoniškių, Grigiškių, Verkių, Panerių, and other districts. The sidewalks will be paved firstly in sections where they are mostly necessary: around the public transportation stops, schools, and pedestrian crossings.

Almost 6 km of an asphalted bicycle path will be laid along Laisvės Avenue (from Sodros till Ateities St.) and the sidewalk next to it will be repaired. A new bicycle path of nearly one kilometre will be laid in Saulėtekio Avenue as well (from Nemenčinės Road till Šatrijos Raganos St.); sidewalks will also be repaired there.

Like last year, 8 km of gravel roads will be asphalted this year in Kalno, Krakiškių, Avietyno, Gerviškių, Filaretų, Dieveniškių, Labguvos, Kelmijos Sodų 85-oji, Kryžiokų Sodų 2-oji, 3-oji and 4-oji streets, Vanaginės Sodų 3-oji, Skersinės Sodų 1-oji St., Mikytų St., Veržuvos St., Mačernio St., and Bajorų Road.

During the repair work, traffic will be limited; therefore, the municipality apologises for the temporary inconvenience. The municipality will inform the community about specific traffic limitations in advance by issuing separate announcements.