Progress unlikely to be made on Tallinn's 'Small Ring Road' in coming years

The future Tallinn coalition's plans to move forward with constructing the "small" ring road around the capital is unlikely to come to fruition as the state will not allocate funding for the project in the coming years.
The Center Party, which is in negotiations with Isamaa, has said the most important traffic infrastructure project in Tallinn is the Small Ring Road, which would go around Ülemiste Lake. The party wants the project to be jointly developed with the state, but said the city must take the lead in moving it forward.
The 2+2 highway ring road would stretch from Smuuli tänav to Viljandi maantee. It will also have pedestrian and bicycle paths, bridges, overpasses, bus stops, pedestrian tunnels, and a tunnel beneath the airport.
The road is not a municipal project and falls under the responsibility of the national Transport Administration.
Tarmo Mõttus, head of the road maintenance plan at the Transport Administration, said the agency has drawn up preliminary designs but they are now on hold. This is because the project is not included in the government-approved national road maintenance plan.
"The Transport Administration can only proceed once a construction project is included in the national road maintenance plan approved by the government, which determines funding and construction years. Unfortunately, the construction of the Tallinn Small Ring Road is not listed in the current plan, and therefore, the only thing known today is that construction will not begin in the coming years," he said.
Mõttus said the state's priority is to improve roads that are part of the European Union's core network by 2030, but there is not enough money to do so.
In Estonia, the core network includes the Tallinn–Pärnu–Ikla road and the Tallinn–Tartu highway.
The preliminary design was funded by Tallinn, Rae Municipality, and Tallinn Airport. The airport was included in the project because approximately one kilometer of tunnel planned as part of the Small Ring Road would run beneath its territory.
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Editor: Helen Wright










