Concealed sanctions of Russia may lie in the blocking of the bridge of Narva

10.05.2007

Though the bridge of Narva requires repairing, it is under no circumstances in breakdown condition and thus the shutdown of traffic there is not justified. According to the opinion of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications the shutdown of traffic from Russia may mean concealed sanctions, though no official confirmation from the Russian side on the obstruction of traffic has arrived.

“Though the bridge of Narva requires repairing, it is under no circumstances in breakdown condition”, Heiti Popp, the head of the supervision department of the Road Administration said, according to whom the load bearing capacity of the bridge is 41 tons.

At the same time no official confirmation on restriction or shutdown of traffic on the bridge of Narva has arrived to the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications from the side of Russia, even though during the last days the press has spread information on the shutdown of traffic on the border bridge between Estonia and Russia.

According to Popp the bridge belongs to the town of Narva, with whom the Road Administration concluded an agreement of cooperation in the year 1992. According to the agreement the current maintenance is performed by the town of Narva and major repairs are conducted by the state. According to the confirmation of Heiti Popp the Road Transport Research Institute of Kaunas conducted an inspection survey in the year 2005, in the course of which the load bearing capacity of the bridge was also determined (41 tons). The conclusive part of the survey notes that the bridge would need repair, but is not in breakdown condition.

Last year the Road Administration ordered from a diving company Acvacom also the study of the underwater parts of the bridge and though these have not been completed yet, it can be stated on the current observations that the bridge cannot be considered to be in breakdown condition, Popp said. According to him there has been established a procedure from the autumn of the year 2005, according to which only one heavy goods vehicle at a time is let to the bridge and so far such traffic arrangement has functioned without failures. “Russia has performed no studies on the bridge and thus cannot assess the condition of the bridge truthfully either”, Popp noted.