The third phase of building the western bypass around Lithuania’s capital, Vilnius, has been launched with the goal of relieving congestion by removing through traffic from the north-west of the city. This helps to cut journey times and vehicle operating costs for local and international road users, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, increase road safety standards and improve the local environment and quality of life for residents.
New western bypass to relieve congestion in Vilnius
- 28 August 2017
The project involves construction of a 5.38-kilometre section of road from Ozo Street to the A2 Vilnius-Panevėžys highway, 1.92 kilometres of which has six lanes of traffic and the rest has four. The maximum speed on the road is 80 km/h.
Six viaducts and one footbridge are included, as are 1260 lamp posts and 29.36 kilometres of electric cables. Due to their proximity to the route, a series of high-voltage electricity pylons have to be reconstructed.
A much-needed road
Vilnius is on European routes E28 – from Berlin to Minsk – and E85 – from Klaipėda in Lithuania to Alexandroupoli in Greece – while route E272 runs from Vilnius to Klaipėda. All main arteries out of the city, except for the road linking Vilnius with southern Belarus, have four lanes.
However, the city lacks a complete network of bypasses and high-speed roads, and transit traffic often has to use city streets that are unsuitable for high traffic volumes. Moreover, surrounding towns and villages have grown since independence in 1991, with some 150 000 people travelling into and out of Vilnius on a daily basis.
North-west Vilnius has developed rapidly and is now home to about 200 000 people – a 25 % increase over the last two decades – but has only one main artery to cope with large traffic flows. An area was set aside for a western bypass in the 1980s, with the final decision made in 1998 and the route approved in 2004.
Construction began in 2009 in three stages. A 0.51-kilometre section of road from Oslo Street to L. Asanavičiūtės Street – including reconstruction of Lazdynai Bridge, a three-level junction and a tunnel – was completed in 2011. A 2.84-kilometre extension from L. Asanavičiūtės Street to Ozo Street was finished in 2014. Although this improved the situation for local traffic, transit, incoming and outgoing traffic still had to go through the city and so the present project began, covering the final and most extensive phase.
Traffic analysis informs development
Traffic flows were analysed – including the number, distance and duration of journeys – on 45 roads or sections of road, and previous survey data and planned public transport improvements were taken into account. Based on this data, increases in traffic volumes of around 6 % for the period up to 2039 were forecast, which justified the development.
The work entails excavation of over a million m³ of soil using 10 bulldozers, 20 excavators and 150 dumper trucks and employing almost 150 workers on the site.
Building of the bypass marks the full integration of Vilnius into the Trans-European Transport Network North Sea-Baltic Corridor. It is also a vital addition to road links from Vilnius to Minsk, Riga and Tallinn.
Total investment and EU funding
Total investment for the project “Trans-European network link Vilnius city western bypass, Stage III” is EUR 106 946 617, with the EU’s Cohesion Fund contributing EUR 84 062 280 through the “EU Structural Funds Investments” Operational Programme for the 2014-2020 programming period.