New eight-kilometre border road nears completion by Narva River

Estonia’s Police and Border Guard Board is completing a new road along the Narva River to improve border surveillance, ERR reported. The road will connect the Punamäe and Narva border guard stations and will remain open to hikers and cyclists.

The facility, due to be completed by the end of the year, includes a patrol route built from concrete floats across the Gorodenka stream. Infrastructure construction along this section of the Narva River border will cost 12.8 million euros.

“The road we are currently building from Kuningaküla to the quarry will connect the Punamäe station with the Narva station,” said Merle Tikk, project manager for the Police and Border Guard Board’s eastern border development. “We need it to ensure border security and provide patrol teams with the best and fastest possible movement, as well as to support border guard operations.”

Tikk said the route is about eight kilometres long and includes a patrol road and other infrastructure, making it specifically a border infrastructure road.

Sten Denissov, a border guard at the Narva station, said the main advantage was the new bridge and improved connection between the two stations. Previously, vehicles could not respond in the area because it was very marshy.

“When patrols were carried out, people usually had water up to their knees and could not continue patrolling. They had to change their clothes,” Denissov said. “Now it is possible to move around with drier feet and drive there by car.”