A tender for another section of “Via Baltica” is announced
The State Enterprise Lithuanian Road Administration announced a public procurement for the reconstruction of the section of the main road A5 Kaunas-Marijampolė-Suvalkai (“Via Baltica”) from 72.50 km to 85 km. Following successful procurement procedures, work is expected to start in the first quarter of 2023.
“The modernisation of the “Via Baltica” road linking the Baltic states is one of Lithuania’s priority transport infrastructure projects. Preparations are well underway for the reconstruction of about 40 km of road from Marijampolė to the Lithuanian-Polish border. With rapid progress, we plan to reconstruct this section into a modern 4-lane motorway by the end of 2024, two years ahead of schedule,” said Minister of Transport and Communications Marius Skuodis.
Proposals will be evaluated on the basis of cost-effectiveness, with the best proposal being selected on the basis of price/quality criteria. The qualitative criteria for this procurement are the time taken to complete the work in months, the additional duration of the construction’s guarantee period in years, the competence of the specialist proposed by the supplier and the price.
This year, the works are scheduled to start on the section from km 72.50 to km 79, which has already been publicly tendered and the contract will be signed soon.
In addition, following the completion of the design, a tender for contract works for the section from 56.83 km to 72.50 km is expected to be launched this year. It is planned to announce a call for tenders for the fourth section of this road, from 85 km to 97.06 km, at the end of 2022 and beginning of 2023.
At the end of 2019, following the Government’s approval of the Specific plan for the reconstruction of the section of “Via Baltica” (the section of the A5 Kaunas-Marijampolė-Suvalkai road from 56.83 km to 97.06 km), land acquisition procedures and design works have started.
The entire 40 km section of “Via Baltica” (from 56.83 to 97.06 km) is scheduled for completion in December 2024.
The reconstruction of the “Via Baltica” section from Marijampolė to the Polish border will bring it into line with international infrastructure safety and traffic management standards. This is one of the busiest stretches of traffic in Lithuania. The average annual daily traffic volume on this 40 km stretch is up to 10,000 vehicles per day, of which up to 50% is freight transport.
It is planned that by 2030, the entire “Via Baltica” motorway through Lithuania will be reconstructed to meet the traffic organisation and safety requirements of the international road network.