The Ülemiste junction is one of the busiest traffic hubs in the capital, and is an interface with three major thoroughfares: Tartu mnt, Peterburi tee, and Järvevana tee.

Around 14,000 people work and/or live in the nearby Ülemiste business district, and the junction is also close to Tallinn Airport, the under development Rail Baltica terminal and three shopping malls.

For drivers, the junction can be inconvenient, but for pedestrians and cyclists it can even be a dangerous as well as time consuming interface to negotiate.

Reconstructing the junction was last year forecast to come with a price tag of around €8 million. However with the local elections less than three weeks away now, it is up to the next city administration to decide on how to proceed.
The city government has had the project of making the area more pedestrian-friendly on the table for a couple of years already.

Architect Sille Pihlak, the project's main overseer, noted there are: "Nine crosswalks and, in terms of time, it's an insane burden. Of course, most of the time you're stuck on some island in the middle of fast car traffic between an eight-lane road."

This does not mean a reduction in car lanes is imminent, however.

"Everything that is added goes under the embankment, meaning into light traffic tunnels under the railway. And likewise there would be a bridge and a ramp," Pihlak said.

The reconstruction also has to compete with other pressing city needs; for example the recently started renovation of Peterburi tee.

An added complication is that much of the land in question is owned by filling station chain Circle K, which operates an outlet at the junction and would have to transfer its land to the city for the benefit of construction.

Elari Udam, head of the Tallinn Environment Department's service, said that the city's needs overall amount to hundreds of millions, and the question is in what timeframe these will be carried out.

"If we can foresee that we have major infrastructure projects in progress – we have the reconstruction of Liivalaia, we have the construction of the Pelguranna tramline – these are very expensive and extensive projects, yet at the same time money must be found for other things as well," Udam said.

In Tartu, Pihlak's firm, PART, have already undertaken similar work at the intersection of Vaksali and Riia..

This project has, she said, proved a success.

Feedback has also come from Tartu city government that it is much more user-friendly and there are a lot more pedestrians for understandable reasons. Indeed, people actually want to leave their cars at home, so they can reach their destination faster by bike," she said.

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