1. Country Report: Latvia
Tālis Straume
Latvian State Roads
On behalf of „Latvian State Roads” I have a great pleasure to welcome you to the 27th International Baltic Road Conference in Riga.
This is the Conference when we have to look back at the achievements in the Latvian road sector since 2006.

2. General: Road Network Bituminous pavement Gravel pavement Total
State roads:
8 269
11 907
20 176
Main
1 649 -
Regional
4 010
1 312
5 321
Local
2 611
10 595
13 206
Municipal roads and streets:
5 438
33 575
39 013
Roads
1 019
30 413
31 432
Streets
4 419
3 163
7 581
Forest roads 20
6 975
6 995
Private roads
500
3 000
3 500
Roads and streets, total
14 227
55 457
69 684
This is general statistics of the Latvian road network. Changes in total road length have been insignificant.
As you all may see a major part of the Latvian road network still is gravel roads.
Lately, however, we have changed road classification to:
State main roads,
Regional roads,
Local roads

3. General: Traffic on Roads
237.9 km
>10000 km km
km <1000
Traffic intensity map shows that traffic in Latvia has a clearly visible centralised patter as the main traffic takes place around the capital city.
Statistical data shows that in fact only a minor part of our network – less than 240 km of roads have more or less significant traffic.
Practically 80% of our road network may be regarded as low volume roads as AADT does not exceed 1000 vehicles per day.

4. General: Road Financing
Though the road financing in Latvia in principle depends on the revenues from excise duty on petrol and annual vehicle tax, in reality it is often subject to the decisions of politicians when the Parliament each year approves the state budget.
We have experienced dramatic increase of road funding allocated from the state budget – in 2008 we received almost twice as much money from the consolidated budget as in However, it has to be noted that the major part of this funding is spent on periodic and routine maintenance and too few resources are left for capital investments. For example the amount allocated to road maintenance in 2008 was ~92 million EUR, and in ~83 million EUR.
To compensate this shortage we are attracting more and more funds from the EU Cohesion Fund and European Regional Development Fund. Since 2004 when these funds became available to Latvia, we have attracted notable financial resources from both funds. Financing from the EU Cohesion Fund is mostly attracted to construction and reconstruction of important transit routes such as Via Baltica and E22, resources from ERDF are allocated to the reconstruction, renovation and strengthening of important regional roads. We expect the increase of the EU financing from 83 million EUR in 2010 up to 124 million in Thus the total EU funding in 2007 – 2010 will a almost 351 million in total.

5. Defined Priorities Traffic safety improvements; Provision of mobility
Improvement of accessibility
Development of main transport corridors
Necessary studies for future express roads
Considering the above mentioned we have defined the following priorities in the road network during recent three years
Traffic safety improvements mostly by small scale measures (pedestrian ways, lightning, improvement of “black sports”);
Provision of mobility mostly through routine maintenance activities
Improvement of accessibility with the help of domestic financing and European Regional Development Fund by reducing the share of gravel roads and improving regionally important routes
Development of main transport corridors such as Via Baltica and E22
Necessary studies and preliminary preparations for the development of future express road network
I will further address these topics in detail

6. Traffic Safety Vehicles Drivers Accidents with killed / injured Killed
If we sum up all aspects of road traffic we may conclude that at an increasing number of vehicles and drivers in our country the number of accidents and killed in road accidents has been reduced drastically.

7. Development of Transport Corridors
Here is the map showing all major construction projects completed within the 3 recent years
The reconstructed Via Baltica road sections Ådaži–Gauja (5.36 km), Bauska–Grenctāle (17.81 km) and Ķekava–Iecava (17.9 km) were opened and the airport “Riga” access road project was accomplished in 2006.
Construction of 18.9 km of Saulkrasti bypass and reconstruction of 40 km of the A1 road Riga (Baltezers)–Estonian border (Ainaži) section –Skulte–Svētciems were completed during Construction works on the A12 road Jēkabpils–Rēzekne–Ludza–Russian border (Terehova) section Jēkabpils–Varakļāni, as well as, reconstruction of the Nirza–Ploski section began.
In 2008 the newly built road section Nirza – Ploski was finished. Procurement process was started for the section Ludza – Nirza. Both sections constitute immediate infrastructure projects of the West – East transport corridor and after finishing will be included in the route E22.
In 2009 the first stage of the new E22 route Riga bypass – Koknese will be completed and the reconstruction will be completed on E22 route road section Jēkabpils – Varakļāni.

8. Future Studies Express road projects Motorway projects
Projects under study
Riga Northern crossing and
Southern bridge
Projects under study
Considering the gap between the development of state roads and road user needs concerning road capacity, comfort and traffic safety, the recently developed Motorway/Express Road Development plan, as well as, insufficient state budget and EU funds for the reconstruction and development of state main roads in the nearest future LSR in the last three years has sought different possibilities in attracting alternative financing for road development.
After taking over the experience of other countries and gaining political support LSR in 2006 decided to start the first Latvian PPP in the road sector.
On October 20 the Cabinet of Ministers approved the Concept of „Construction of Motorway A2 section Riga Bypass – Senite” and on October 4, 2007 it delegated the rights to launch the procurement procedure according to the Public Procurement Law and sign DBFO service contract for Express Road E77 section Riga Bypass - Senite to the Ministry of Transport.
If the pilot project were successful, a number of topical projects would be proposed for PPP financing: Road E67 section A4 Riga Bypass; Road E67 Kekava Bypass; Road E77 section Riga – Jelgava; Road E22 section Priedaine – Sloka; Road E22 section Riga Bypass – Koknese; Riga Northern Crossing (4th Stage).
However, in the last week of July, 2009, we were informed that the International Monetary Fund had recommended our Ministry of Finance to stop and evaluate repeatedly the involvement of Latvian government in any PPP activities. Therefore at this moment we may conclude that the future of the first Latvia PPP project is very unclear.
Projects under study