On Wednesday, the Directorate of Motorways announced the first tender for the reconstruction of the Vilnius-Utena concrete road built several decades ago. Applications of potential participants are expected until May 17.
The interim head of the Roads Directorate, Vitalijs Andrejev, previously said that the contract for the contract works is expected to be signed in the summer.
In total, it is intended to announce several tenders - it will start with a 5,5 kilometer stretch outside of Vilnius - from the 16th kilometer, where the four-lane road ends, to the intersection to Nemenčina at the 21st kilometer. Two level crossings will be built in this section. According to V. Andrejev, the value of the works will reach about 25 million. euros.
It is planned that the works of the first stage of reconstruction will last 17 months. The entire 70-kilometer road is planned to be reconstructed by 2022.
The Directorate, which previously intended to repair the road through a public-private partnership (PPP), abandoned this idea last year and will finance the project from the Road Maintenance and Development Program (KPPP).
The need to renew the Vilnius-Utena road started to be discussed in 2013, in 2014 the Government of Algirdas Butkevičius agreed that it should be implemented by PPP, but Seimas after long discussions, it was approved only at the end of 2015.
It is estimated that the value of the 13-year road construction and maintenance project will reach 170 million. euros. However, the new Government, which took office in December 2016, re-evaluated the project and last May the Ministry of Transport proposed to the Directorate of Roads to reconstruct the road in sections, using KPPP funds.
The maintenance of the road built in 1985, the surface of which is made of cement concrete, is constantly becoming more expensive, because it is cracked, new cracks develop, and the seams are deformed.
This PPP project is mentioned in the political corruption scandal. In it, among other things, the former leader of the Liberal Movement, Eligijus Masiulis, is suspected of taking 106. EUR bribe from Raimonds Kurlianskis, the former vice-president of the MG Baltic concern, for influence, The Seimas considering the decision on the reconstruction of the Vilnius-Utena road, amendments to the Law on Consumer Credits and choosing a place for the monument of Jonas Basanavičius in Vilnius.
MG Baltic and E. Masiulis deny the allegations.
