Skip to main content

Riga Northern Transport Corridor

The Riga Northern Transport Corridor is an ambitious transport E1.5 billion infrastructure development project involving a new 30km long inner city highway. Its aim is to provide a fast connection between the east and west of Riga City and integrate the city and Riga port into the Trans-European road network. It will include another major new crossing of the Daugava River which is 420m wide at this point. The project will lead to a substantial improvement of transport efficiency in the Riga region and will
February 14, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
The Riga Northern Transport Corridor is an ambitious transport E1.5 billion infrastructure development project involving a new 30km long inner city highway.

Its aim is to provide a fast connection between the east and west of Riga City and integrate the city and Riga port into the Trans-European road network. It will include another major new crossing of the Daugava River which is 420m wide at this point.

The project will lead to a substantial improvement of transport efficiency in the Riga region and will reduce congestion in the historic Riga city centre and on the existing Riga city centre bridges, resulting in improved access and better environmental conditions.

It will support economic development by providing much better accessibility to the Riga port and major development sites in the Northern Corridor area, as well as through reductions in congestion.

It is the largest investment project in the Baltic States and offers numerous challenges, including the largest PPP project in region where project costs exceed the current municipal budget of Riga city; the first large-scale joint state/municipal PPP project in the region, and many first-time technical solutions for the Baltic region such as a high suspension bridge with a 58m clearance.

The project currently is in active preparation stage with outline design and environmental impact assessment, technical, financial and legal studies ongoing and scheduled to be completed by 2011.

Transport and financial investigations, geotechnical investigations, cost-benefit analysis, legal analysis for the PPP financing option was done in 2008 and is currently being updated.

The current project schedule envisages announcement of PPP tender in 2012. Implementation of project will decrease the number of cars passing through the narrow streets of the densely inhabited central core of Riga city. Thus, the adverse environmental impact caused by extensive traffic flows will be significantly reduced as motor transport is the main air pollutant in the centre of Riga.

Advisors include 1391 PricewaterhouseCoopers (financial); 1395 Lovells/1396 Sorainen (legal) and 1397 AECOM (technical and traffic).

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • European transport pricing deadline
    September 3, 2012
    Public consultation is nearing completion on the sensitive issue of internalising external costs to make transport users pay for the perceived negative effects they inflict on society, including air pollution, CO2 emissions, accidents and congestion. Within six months a universal model will be unveiled by the European Commission (EC).
  • NSW Australia investing in transport
    June 20, 2013
    Australia’s New South Wales (NSW) Government has outlined its massive transportation investment in the WestConnex project. This will be the largest urban transport project in the history of New South Wales. Some A$1.8 billion will be invested over four years from Restart NSW, the state’s new infrastructure fund. to finance the WestConnex project. And A$111 million will be committed in 2013-14 to get work underway on the 33km motorway. The NSW Government will fund the initial sections of the motorway. Privat
  • Australia responds to infrastructure funding challenge
    July 13, 2012
    The Global Financial Crisis (GFC) has drastically changed the way governments and the private sector is prepared to procure vital infrastructure projects, says Philip Davies Governments have responded to the GFC by focusing on long term investment in transport infrastructure and shorter term stimulus packages to kick-start economies. As these projects proceed, the focus will shift to maintaining and achieving maximum benefits from assets and future infrastructure funding. The Public Private Partnership (PP
  • Tampere road tunnel - a strategic link for central Finland
    April 4, 2016
    Progress has been good for an important underground road link in Finland reports Adrian Greeman. Assuming all goes well, the new Ranta, or Lakeside, tunnel in Tampere will open in full six months early; traffic could be running by the end of this year. Work on transforming the rundown city centre with new developments will get a major boost. It is a major achievement on a four-year-long project bringing significant benefits to one of Finland's largest cities. From the government's point of view the scheme w