Estonia has committed to upgrading its main highways to meet EU standards by 2030. However, EU requirements do not explicitly mandate four-lane highways, meaning the Tallinn-Tartu and Tallinn-Pärnu-Ikla highways may never end up fully four-lane roads.
By the year 2030, Estonia is required to develop the highways that are part of the EU’s core network — namely the Tallinn-Tartu and Tallinn-Pärnu-Ikla highways. The EU’s requirements for main highways stipulate grade-separated interchanges and traffic directions separated by a median strip.
According to the Ministry of Climate, these requirements mean there is no obligation to upgrade the roads to four-lane highways. This, in turn, means that neither of the country’s two main highways may ever be fully expanded into four-lane roads with 2+2 traffic lanes.
“These requirements apply to sections of road with an average daily traffic volume of more than 10,000 vehicles,” explained Julia Bergštein, director of the Road Division at the Ministry of Climate.
“In other words, we can request an exemption for everything with traffic volumes below that,” she continued. “We still have to notify and seek permission to either leave them unbuilt for now or postpone their construction.”
More read: ERR.EE