Übersicht
Greenfield construction and maintenance of the 14.25 km long road section of the A7 motorway Riga - Bauska - Lithuanian border along Bauska municipality, part of Via Baltica international road corridor and two connector roads with combined length of 5.0 km. The project will be implemented under the Design-Build-Finance-Maintain (DBFM) PPP model, with a design and construction period of 3 years, followed by 20 years of maintenance.
The project is located in a less developed region, making it eligible under Article 309 point (a) less developed regions. The entire project section is part of the TEN-T Core network (Regulation 2024/1679), and the project is therefore eligible also under Article 309 point (c) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU. The project is expected to contribute to climate action and environmental sustainability (CA&ES) objectives, in particular to climate adaptation.
The project is part of a longer (70 km) A7 road section (crossing with A4 (Saulkalne) to Bauska (Arce), which was subject to an environmental impact assessment (EIA) procedure back in 2009. Following the study results, the Competent Authority issued an Environmental Decision on 6 November 2009. The project section as such also falls under Annex I of the EIA Directive 2011/92/EU as amended by Directive 2014/52/EU. Considering the time elapsed since the EIA Decision and new circumstances (Rail Baltica alignment and changes in land-use) affecting the project area, the Promoter carried out additional studies and applied for a Competent Authority's screening decision. Following the analysis of the updated information, the Competent Authority on 11 November 2024 issued a screening decision concluding that the new circumstances will not have a significant negative impact on environment and a new EIA procedure for the Bauska bypass project section is not required. The project doesn't interfere with NATURA 2000 sites. Potential climate risks, the scope and adequacy of the applied adaptation measures for ensuring long-term resilience of the new road, and impact of the project implementation on the GHG emissions will be further assessed during the appraisal.
The Bank will require the promoter to ensure that contracts for implementation of the project are tendered in accordance with the applicable EU procurement legislation, 2014/24/EU as well as Directive 89/665/EEC as interpreted by the Court of Justice of the EU, with publication of tender notices in the EU Official Journal, as and where required.