OREANDA-NEWS. August 18, 2014. Reconstruction of Kairiu street, sometimes called the visiting - card of Klaipeda town, leading from International Ferry Terminal to Klaipeda town, has been officially completed.

Three year ago Klaipeda State Seaport Authority (KSSA) started reconstruction of the section of the street two and a half kilometres in length. The sum allocated for reconstruction works performed reached nearly thirty million litas. Funds used for reconstruction of the street were co-financed from EU and KSSA funds. Kairiu street is one of infrastructure projects implemented by KSSA in Klaipeda town. It has been estimated that KSSA invests annually approx. 9,2 million litas to the welfare of Klaipeda town.

„This place has been a real sore both for the town and for the port. Kairiu street  is the street that makes the first impression on quests arriving from other countries to International Ferry Terminal, moreover, basic multimodal terminals operate in this part of the seaport, therefore reconstruction of the street has always been of vital importance“, told Arvydas Vaitkus, director general of KSSA.

The project of reconstruction of Perkelos street was the project that was implemented primarily and in 2011 KSSA launched the project of reconstruction of Kairiu street. EU provided funding for implementation of this project. On the 27th of September 2011 the contract agreement on construction works with contractual price of 32,7 million litas was concluded between the Seaport Authority and JSC “Hidrostatyba” acting under the joint activity agreement with JSC “ Zemaitijos keliai” and JSC “„Lemminkainen Lietuva“.

Kairiu street construction completion and final acceptance certificate was signed on the 18th July of the current year, i.e. the State Commission established under the Decree of Klaipeda Territorial Planning and Construction State Supervision Department of State Territorial Planning and Construction Inspectorate under the Ministry of Environment accepted this object as fit for use. The price of the contract works was 29,6 million litas, consequently the sum of nearly 3 million litas has been saved. EU financial assistance covered 85,76 percent of funding, 15,24 percent were the allotted by KSSA.

Considering the state of Kairiu street the total project of construction works was split into 3 stages with separate technical projects:

the I stage – 761 metres in length Kairiu street section stretching from different level interchange (Taikos avenue with Kairiu Street) up to the Klaipeda Channel (the so called Wilhelm’s channel) has been reconstructed and the 110 kV aerial line cable has been laid. Presently this section of Kairiu street has 4 traffic lanes (2 lanes in each direction) with a 2 meters in width cycle path and sidewalks for pedestrians 1,5 meters in width. The opposing lanes of traffic are separated by a landscaped with grass median divider island. The crossroad with junction road to Perkelos street was also reconstructed. In the junction road to Perkelos street a rubber railroad grade crossing 20 meters in length has been constructed. Buss stations with pavilions and litterbins have been mounted on both sides of the streets.

the II stage - the motor road bridge of Kairiu street over the Klaipeda Channel has been reconstructed. The reinforced concrete bridge spans were replaced by steel and concrete spans. The bridge has been widened from 2 traffic lanes to 4 traffic lanes.  A sidewalk for pedestrians with bike path 3,5 meters in width alongside the bridge has been constructed. The overall length of the bridge is 32,24 meters and the width is  25,25 meters.

the III stage  – another section of Kairiu street, starting at the bridge over the Klaipeda Channel and stretching up till the railway bridge, has been reconstructed, i.e. the so-called western road. In other words the beginning of the street is connected with reconstructed bridge over the Klaipeda Channel.

Western road has been covered with a new asphalt surfacing, sidewalks for pedestrians have been constructed, entrance/exit roads, two cross roads controlled by traffic lights, parking lots and buss stations with platforms have been repaired or constructed anew.

The total length of the reconstructed section is 1666 meters. The section of 865 meters of Kairiu street that begins from the Klaipeda Channel has two roadways (2 traffic lanes each) with a median divider. One part is 7 meters in width, the median divider that is 2 meters in width has been constructed with concrete road curbs 15 centimetres above the roadway. One roadway with double gradient asphalt pavement has been constructed in the remaining part of the street. Further the traffic flow will get into already reconstructed section of Kairiu street with 3 traffic lanes where the first and the third lanes are designated for opposite – direction  traffic and the middle lane is designated for lane-change manoeuvres.The object was co-financed from EU funds under the Operational Program of Economic Growth approved by European Commission pursuant to Resolution No. K(2007)3740 as of the 30th of July 2007, instrument VP-5.2-SM-01 “ Development of Passenger and Cargo Service Infrastructure in Klaipeda State Seaport”, approved by the July 23 2008 Resolution No. 788 of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania “On Approval of Annex of Operational Program of Economic Growth” of priority 5 “Development of Trans-european transport networks”

Totally 2570 metres of Kairiu street were reconstructed. The project price was 29 675 764,17 Lt.