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Terminal and Improvement of Klaipėda Transport System are Inseparable 2009.01.08 Arvydas Vaitkus, Secretary at the Ministry of Transport and Communications of the Republic of Lithuania, hopes that the project of the Passenger and Cargo Terminal being under construction at Klaipėda port will be successfully developed. Solution of Klaipėda city traffic problems also depends on the implementation of the terminal project. "Passenger and Cargo Terminal is one of the most sizeable and important projects at Klaipėda port. Its construction and development of necessary infrastructure will require some LTL 0.5 billion of state and private investments", says A. Vaitkus. According to him, final calculations including also reconstruction of the three main Klaipėda city crossings situated along the road from the terminal through the city to the highway towards Vilnius, will demonstrate the need for even higher investments. This is the link between reconstruction of the crossings and construction of the terminal due to which the Klaipėda State Sea Port Authority was granted EU support to design works of crossings that are carried out by the company Tiltų Ekspertų Centras. EU and Government support for reconstruction of the crossings is also expected. On 8th January, designers introduced already worked-out projects at the premises of the Klaipėda State Sea Port Authority. In the initial stage, the greatest attention was paid to the crossing of Baltijos pr. and Minijos g. situated nearby to the future terminal. During the meeting, however, participated both by Rimantas Taraškevičius, Klaipėda City Mayor, and Arūnas Burkšas, Klaipėda Region Head, it was stated that first of all the issue with respect to reconstruction of the roundabout of Šilutės pl. and Baltijos pr. situated at the departure from the city shall be solved. This opinion was also welcomed by Benediktas Petrauskas, CEO of Klaipėdos Keleivių ir Krovinių Terminalas UAB being an operator of the future terminal and held by the concern Achema Group. According to him, flows of motorcars to the very terminal will have no significant influence on the already available traffic flows, therefore it is more important to ensure a possibility for the transport and persons travelling by passenger ferries to access the very terminal more conveniently instead of getting stuck in traffic jams at the approaches of Klaipėda. Participants of the meeting accepted the initiative of B. Petrauskas to apply to the transport field experts for detailed calculations on the traffic flows along the entire road from the terminal and only then start particular design works and plan reconstruction succession of the crossings. Solution of Klaipėda city traffic problems is also a must due to another reason: by the year 2011, close to Klaipėda Passenger and Cargo Terminal, a universal sports arena shall be constructed that will attract additional traffic flows. As A. Vaitkus, Secretary of the Ministry states, already the next meeting of the Supervision Committee of Klaipėda Passenger and Cargo Terminal will be chaired by Eligijus Masiulis, resident of Klaipėda and the new Minister of Transport and Communications. |
