Eventually, No ≤ 5 Metre-Wide National Roads In Lithuania

SE Lithuanian Road Administration (later – the Road Administration) starts the reconstruction of state significance roads, the width of which is less than 5 metres. According to the priority list of National Roads Noncompliant with the Road Category (road pavement width ≤ 5 m) (later – the priority list), the total length of such roads makes up ca 198 km.

During the last four years, 33 road accidents with 10 fatalities and 38 injured have been registered. Most of traffic accidents occurred due to vehicle collisions and rollover.

The Director of the Road Adminstration Remigijus Lipkevičius states that “≤5 5-metre-wide national roads do not meet the standards of the national road category. Moreover, they are dangerous in terms of traffic safety. Due to their limited width it is harder for vehicles to overtake and to make a manouver of overtaking. Sometimes a vehicle has to drive on the road shoulder, which impacts on the stability of the vehicle. When the wheels are on different types of pavement at the same time, the vehicle might lose control”, says the Director of the Road Adminstration Remigijus Lipkevičius.
In Lithuania, there

are 47 road sections of national roads that do not comply to the standards (road pavement width ≤ 5 m). Their reconstruction is being implemented according to the priority list and the funds available in the Road Maintenance and Development Programme. The contract on the reconstruction of the first road section on the priority list has already been drawn up. The other road sections on the list are already under tendering, designing or public procurement procedures.

The criteria of compiling the priority list were: road pavement condition, traffic volumes in general, traffic volumes of heavy goods vehicles, the need to reconstruct road intersections, etc.

The road and their component reconstruction methodologies and priority lists can be found at the Road Administration website.