Rebuilding key Lithuania highway link

The Lithuanian Government is setting out plans to rebuild one of the country’s main highway links. The Vilnius-Utena highway rebuilding project is set to commence towards the end of 2015 and has an estimated cost of some €175 million. The project plans call for the work to be carried out under the public-private partnership (PPP) model and will involve reconstructing a 72.1km stretch of the Vilnius-Utena highway. The project will be submitted to parliament for approval in March 2015. If the approval is then given, public procurement for the project would commence by the end of 2015. The project would be the largest ever PPP project in road construction in Lithuania. The work is needed as the volume of traffic on the highway has nearly doubled over the last 10 years. Under the PPP project, the general contractor would be required to maintain the highway.