Starting in January, over the next three years, a 45-kilometer four-lane section will be built from Nurme near Pärnu to Märjamaa. The new road will largely follow the same route, while also bringing about some changes.

The biggest of which is the construction of the Are bypass, which will take the road past the Pärnu County village.

"Potentially this will have the greatest impact on businesses in Are, and have little to no impact elsewhere," said Mart Michelis, head of the planning department at the Estonian Transport Administration.

"However, in Are, since we are going to build a bypass and no longer have traffic driving through the village, businesses in Are will no longer be located directly next to the road. It will affect them, but for the rest, for example, near Halinga, the situation will actually improve for businesses. Access will remain the same as it is now," Michelis added.

Kaja Varmison runs the Are Meierei café on the current road, as well as the Alpaca farm (Alpakafarmi) 3 kilometers from Are.

"This will definitely have a significant impact on our business, perhaps not so much on Alpakafarmi, because those who want to find us will find us, but, at Are Meierei, we will lose those who are just passing by. I don't think those chance visitors will come here just for the café. We'll have to think of something else to do with the building," said Varmison.

According to Varmison, both the café and the farm could be helped if a sign pointing towards Soomaa National Park were placed on the new highway.

However, the Tori Municipality, which Are belongs to, considers the bypass as a positive development.

"In the village of Are, the houses are close to the highway. There is certainly noise and vibrations in the buildings that are located closest to it. It is also not safe for children to walk to and from school there. In that sense, this development is positive," said Lauri Luur, mayor of Tori, Pärnu County.

There are currently no shops in Are, with Luur believing the new bypass could lead to one being built.

Another major change also concerns routes into the village of Märjamaa. Traffic will be diverted away from Märjamaa, and the entrance roads from both Pärnu and Tallinn will change.

"People coming from Tallinn are used to entering Märjamaa from the gas stations, but in the future they will come from the intersection where the road turns towards Rapla," said Michelis.

Due to the reconstruction, in future, the Märjamaa gas stations will mainly serve drivers traveling from Tallinn to Pärnu.

"There is access from the other direction, but it creates a 2-3 kilometer detour, and we are monitoring the impact of this on traffic at our station at the moment. The situation is certainly not as bad as it was in Mäo, where we lost traffic from both directions. We are looking at the entire route as a whole and looking for an opportunity to build a new gas station somewhere along this route," said Circle K's real estate management company Circle K Priit Pichen.

According to the Transport ´Administration. the road's construction will also create business opportunities for the current Märjamaa gas stations on the other side of the highway.

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