Construction, Financial Services, Latvia, Transport

According to him, the quality of the latest stretches of renovated highways and regional roads are very good, which international experts have also admitted.

However, Lange did admit that over half of Latvia's roads are in a poor state, thus there are probably many drivers who do not notice the good quality of recently renovated roads and criticize the situation on Latvia's roads as a whole.

Meanwhile, Transport Minister Anrijs Matiss told Latvian Television this morning that roads are deteriorating quicker than they are being renovated, and that there is not enough financing for road renovations.

He said that about 70% of main highways are currently in a decent state, and that regional importance roads are also being gradually straightened out. He said that the renovation of main highways and regional importance roads are planned to be completed by 2020.

Matiss reminded that in order for a gradual renovation of Latvian roads, approximately EUR 400 to 500 million would be needed every year. This year, approximately EUR 300 million worth of state and EU funds will be made available for this purpose. Matiss pointed out that the EU funding will be mostly meant for the reconstruction of main highways and only some regional importance roads.

The minister admitted that the additional EUR 200 million needed per year to renovate local roads ''cannot'' be found from the state budget at the moment.

As reported, in order to improve the quality of Latvia's main state highways, EUR 218 million worth of European Union Cohesion Funding will be allocated for this purpose from the bloc's 2014-2020 multi-annual budget, the government decided earlier this week.

The total financing to renovate main highways is at around EUR 257 million, with EUR 218.45 coming from the Cohesion Fund, while EUR 38.55 million with come from the national budget.

According to the road renovation plan, 345 kilometers of state highways will be renovated by 2020, thus reducing the proportion of national highways in a poor or very poor state from the current 46.3% to about 10% of the national network of highways.