Tallinn has backed away from plans to build pedestrian bridges at the Kristiine intersection in the coming years, but still plans to improve the area for pedestrians, public transport and cyclists, Tallinn Deputy Mayor Kristjan Järvan (Isamaa) has said.
The Kristiine intersection has long been a source of frustration for road users and is one of the crossings with the highest number of accidents in the capital.
The city government has been preparing to reconstruct the intersection for several years and European Union funding can co-finance the project until 2029.
Järvan said the city government plans to present the preliminary design for the Kristiine traffic junction in the near future. An idea to build a pedestrian bridge has been pushed to one side.
"When we redesign this intersection, the pedestrian bridge does not yet have to be built in the first phase, but we will identify where the attachment points would be so that pedestrians could even cross the intersection diagonally, while heavy goods vehicles would still be able to pass underneath the pedestrian bridge," Järvan explained.
The city government has also abandoned the idea of turning the intersection into a roundabout or diverting public transport onto Madara tänav.
"The main changes concern public transport. Our main planning guidelines stipulate that the best solution is to bring public transport together in the middle of the street to make transfers possible," he said.
Järvan said the city government also plans to present the preliminary design for Tulika tänav as early as next month. The street runs from the Kristiine intersection toward Põhja-Tallinn. Reconstruction has been on the cards since 2018 and, at the time, the plan called for the removal of one lane of traffic.
Järvan said the current plan is a two-plus-one lane configuration. This means the number of traffic lanes will stay the same.
"The traffic analysis considered two options: either a lane reserved exclusively for public transport and a 1+1 configuration for cars, or the current arrangement, which is a 1+2 configuration. The traffic analysis showed that allowing the 1+2 configuration would result in better travel speeds and less disruption from accidents for all groups of road users. Although the number of traffic lanes will remain the same as today, more greenery will definitely be added, along with bicycle paths," he said.
Another outstanding question concerns the pedestrian and bicycle tunnels beneath the Endla viaduct.
"Elron has sent us a letter stating that construction work planned for 2028 must be approved by the end of summer 2027 at the latest. We would ideally like to build the Endla tunnels in the summer of 2028, after the Song Festival has taken place," Järvan said.
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