Construction, Financial Services, Latvia, Transport

Of this amount, EUR 32.283 million were spent in the summer season and EUR 32.812 million were spent on road maintenance in the winter season.

“Weather conditions characteristic of winter never set in last year, which greatly hampered road maintenance. Salt was spread preventively on the roads on some nights when temperatures fell below zero, but most of the time there was only sludge,” said Lacis.

At the end of last year, vehicle weight limitations were introduced due to sludge on 158 gravel road sections, the total length of which reached 1,253.

Because of money shortages, maintenance class has been lowered for 1,262 kilometers of state roads this winter season. In most cases, the A-A1 maintenance class has been downgraded to B.

It would take extra EUR 6 million to avoid that measure, Lacis said.

The representative of Latvijas Valsts Celi also informed that last year’s floods damaged 134 local roads, 22 regional roads and five national highways. The government allotted EUR 1.345 million for repairs which were completed in the shortest time possible.