About “Via Lithuania”

“Via Lithuania” („Via Lietuva“) is an enterprise founded by the Government of the Republic of Lithuania which is in charge of organizing and co-ordinating the reconstruction, maintenance and development of the roads of national significance.

“Via Lithuania” Aims:

• To satisfy the needs of the society and road users.
• To work economically and efficiently when creating adequate traffic conditions seeking to achieve that the transport on the roads of national significance would be safe, fast, convenient and environment-friendly.
• To develop the roads and their network.
• The top priority is to ensure traffic safety.

The “Via Lithuania” Tasks:

• To implement the state policy regarding the road maintenance and development formulated by the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania.
• To implement the programmes on road maintenance and development drafted by the Ministry of Transport and Communications.
• To organize the development, modernisation and functioning of the network of the roads of national significance.

There are 6.32 km of roads per 1,000 of population in Lithuania and 326.50 km of state roads per 1,000 sq. km of its territory. The majority of our roads (62.01%) have asphalt pavement.

There are 6 European motorways crossing the country:

• E67 Via Baltica: Helsinki–Tallinn–Riga–Panevezys–Kaunas–Warsaw–Wroclaw–Prague,
• E28: Berlin–Gdansk–Kaliningrad–Marijampole–Prienai–Vilnius–Minsk,
• E77: Pskov–Riga–Siauliai–Kaliningrad–Warsaw–Krakow–Budapest,
• E85: Klaipeda–Kaunas–Vilnius–Lida–Cernovcy–Bucharest–Alexandroupoli,
• E262: Kaunas–Utena–Daugavpils–Rezekne–Ostrov,
• E272: Klaipeda–Palanga–Siauliai–Panevezys–Vilnius.

Thus Lithuania, even compared with economically stronger states, has a fairly well-developed road network. It is important to preserve, maintain and develop it so that it is smoothly included into the European network. One of the main stimulus to develop the road network in the country is that Lithuania is a transit country with a number of roads crossing it from west to east and from north to south.

While improving the road network there are a number of roads to be reconstructed so that they would meet the requirements of the people and transport as well as all modern technical, economic and environment requirements, were fast, convenient and safe. It remains one of major concerns for the road engineers in Lithuania for the present and nearest future.