Tallinn plans night work for Liivalaia street repairs

Tallinn plans to carry out road-surface repairs on Liivalaia Street at night this autumn to reduce disruption to daytime traffic, ERR reported. The work is due to begin next week and is expected to last two months, Deputy Mayor Kristjan Järvan said.

The city does not plan to postpone the roadworks that have accumulated for the autumn, Järvan said. Instead, it wants road-surface repairs on major roads to take place mainly at night and outside peak hours.

Tallinn Mayor Peeter Raudsepp said on social media this week that roadworks must not bring traffic in the city to a standstill. He cited ongoing work at the Hippodrome junction, the recently started repairs on Sõle Street and the planned work on Liivalaia Street as examples of the disruption facing people travelling by bus, car or bicycle.

Other important roads are also being repaired, including Peterburi Road and Lauteri Street in the city centre.

Järvan said shifting the Liivalaia work to night-time hours was the plan, although the contractor had not yet received a permit for night work as of this week. He said permits for night work were standard practice on major arterial roads, where road-surface repairs and other works are prohibited during peak hours and temporary traffic arrangements are not allowed at those times.

More disruptive operations, such as milling asphalt, could therefore take place at night and disturb local residents. Järvan described this as a necessary compromise between the interests of people living nearby and keeping the city’s infrastructure and traffic operating during peak hours.

Night work will not prevent the roadworks from affecting traffic in the autumn, Järvan said. He added that Liivalaia Street had needed repairs for years, while Pärnu Road is due to be reconstructed in the coming years. Reconstructing a street that intersects with such a major arterial at the same time would not be reasonable, he said. The section of Liivalaia Street closer to Pärnu Road is already in such poor condition that its foundation layers would also need to be repaired, but the city cannot complete that work within the current timeframe.