No solutions to a planned main street (peatänav) development in central Tallinn are on the horizon, Center Party leader and former Tallinn mayor Mihhail Kõlvart said, adding that if he were re-elected mayor after this autumn’s local elections, he would scrap the project, as he had done during his previous term.
The project would be centered on the west-to-east Pärnu mnt-Narva mnt thoroughfare and would involve a redesign of the area around the front of the Viru Keskus shopping mall, under current plans.
The Reform-Isamaa-SDE-Eesti 200 Tallinn city government, in office since April 2024, has restarted the so-called main street project. Kõlvart, when he was mayor, had halted the project on the grounds that congestion and public transport traffic issues were unresolved.
Speaking recently to ERR about his reasoning at the time, Kõlvart said: “The main issue was capacity, and I believe it is still unresolved. It is not just about regular traffic, but primarily about public transport. We cannot talk about the main street without addressing the future perspective of Liivalaia tänav.”
If the city government is discussing plans for tram lines on Liivalaia tänav at the same time as planning to launch the main street project, then traffic capacities will deteriorate not just on specific streets but across the entire city center, Kõlvart said.
More read: ERR.EE
