bridge for a million
According to the plans of the University of Latvia, soon 22,000 people – students, teachers, and staff – will have to visit the Knowledge Mile every day. And now the exit from the new buildings of the university is only on the street. Yelgavas. Behind it is a stream. And so that all these masses of the public can get through the business center to public transport on Mukusalas Street, a bridge is needed …
Wait a minute, the 23rd bus runs past the university. According to the plans for the construction of Rail-Baltika, a railway station will be located next to the university. Therefore, the question “how to get there” should not arise, they promised to start up electric trains every 15 minutes.
But the thought has decided – there will be a bridge. And the business center took up its own means to arrange a pedestrian passage from the bridge to Mukusalas Street. And in mid-February, the construction of the bridge began.
survey
Already this year, it is planned to open a ferris wheel in Zadvinje. Initially, the businessmen wanted to install it on the AB dam, but did not receive consent. After that, they agreed to install it on a green lawn between Slokas street and Ranka dambis.
It is difficult to understand what tourists will be able to see from there so interesting. The traffic jam at the foot of the ferris wheel will indeed be clearly visible. Businessmen understand what they are doing: to provide an opportunity to view the panorama of the city from an unusual point of view. Trees are being replanted at the construction site.
Unlike a traditional amusement park, where human bustle reigns, this project involves building only the Ferris wheel itself and the ticket office.
And in the adjacent park, pedestrian paths will have to be updated, benches and a video surveillance system installed.
When this project was just being discussed, the question of where the tourist buses would stop and how people would be able to cross from them through Ranka dambis remained unanswered.
It is assumed that the total investment in this project will be about 8 million euros. The height of the Ferris wheel will be 65 meters, which is the height of a 22-storey building. The wheel will rotate around its axis in 15 minutes.
“Construction of the century” is gaining momentum
The builders have begun work on the reconstruction of the surroundings of the Central Station. It is planned to rebuild the three busiest intersections on the waterfront, which will affect the extent of congestion on it during peak hours. Since the roadway will be narrowed during the work.
It is supposed to completely shift the tram tracks at the intersection of the 11 November embankment and st. 13th of January. The rails will be framed not in cobblestones, but in concrete slabs, so that there will be less bumps for cars when crossing tracks. But it should be taken into account: taking out cobblestones, laying concrete slabs and changing rails will not work “piece by piece”. Therefore, drivers should take into account the obvious inconvenience that will arise during the construction work itself, when the tramway and turnouts are dismantled.
At the same time, new pedestrian crossings and bicycle crossings will appear at the intersection, additional traffic lights have been installed.
The construction area will extend along the entire General Radzin embankment and the streets adjacent to it. Reconstruction of intersections with Pushkin and Turgenev streets is also planned. On the other hand, closer to the railway, the intersections of Turgenev and Timotey, Gogol and Gaizin will have to be rebuilt.
Moreover, in order to do “everything at once”, the water supply, gas pipeline, sewerage and power supply cables will first be replaced on the mentioned streets. This is also a protracted process, because first you need to lay new communications, and only then remove the old ones, and not vice versa. Since it is impossible to leave the surrounding quarters without water, sewerage and light.
At the same time, two bridges across the City Canal will have to be rebuilt. That is, the entire center threatens to become almost one large construction site during the construction period. The total investment in this grand transformation of the center is estimated at 28 million euros.
According to the planners, then it will be convenient for everyone. But before this “convenient” one still has to survive during the reconstruction process itself, which can last until the end of the year. So for the time of repair work it is better to choose other ways for movement.
Will pay for a friend
Residents of Riga who have a dog had to pay an annual municipal fee for its maintenance by March 1. The fee is 10 euros.
Disabled people of groups I and II, disabled people of group III due to sight or hearing are exempted from paying the “dog tax”.
A 50% discount is provided if a pensioner is registered by the owner, as well as to all other owners if their dog is spayed.
All receipts from the fee for keeping dogs are credited to the general budget of Riga.
When the duty was introduced, it was assumed that the funds would be used to maintain the infrastructure intended for dogs. And also to pay for services to control the population of stray animals, for which the budget of this year provides for 394 thousand euros.
As of February 1, 2023, Riga residents registered 49,849 dogs at the Agricultural Data Center.
“Don’t wait”
For the repair and maintenance of the carriageways of the streets, at today’s prices, Riga would need 163 million euros. However, this year the city authorities have allocated only 10% of this amount for “roads”. According to the city administration, this is already twice as much as it was in 2020.
At the same time, in 2023 the capital will be forced to pay 124 million euros to the self-government equalization fund. These funds go to the recipient municipalities. And among the recipients of funds, for example, Jelgava and Ogre. Therefore, one should not be surprised that Rigans go to Ogre for Christmas decorations of the city, they can afford it there due to the fact that the expenses for priority needs are covered from the Self-Government Equalization Fund.
The Riga budget for 2023 provides for revenues of 1.179 billion euros and expenditures of 1.26 billion euros. In other words, the budget deficit is planned in the amount of 77 million euros. The leadership of Riga calls the budget adopted on January 25 “technical”, although the regulatory framework does not provide for such terminology. The budget is the budget. At the same time, the city administration reassures that after the state budget is adopted, amendments will be made to the capital budget. And the “technical” budget was adopted in order to ensure the legal increase in the minimum wage from 500 to 620 euros per month. And do not accept the thought of the “technical” budget, this would be impossible, since according to the law, the expenses of municipal structures per month could not exceed 1/12 of the total amount of their last year’s budget.
Schools – 8 thousand computers
7th-9th grades of Riga schools received 8,000 laptops, it was reported at a meeting of the committee on education.
“The computer and the Internet are only tools for our children to master the digital skills that they will need in the future,” said the head of the committee.
The project of equipping schools with new computers was implemented by Riga together with the Ministry of Education. A total of 8,162 Acer Chromebook 314 computers, along with software, have been delivered to metropolitan public schools. The total cost of the project amounted to 11.14 million euros, of which 85% are funds from the European Regional Development Fund and 15% are financed from the state budget.
Riga allocated an additional 800 thousand euros to the project to create a school computerization plan, develop a model for using the computer park, provide organizational and technical support, and provide methodological support to teachers for the purposeful use of portable computers.
After the tickets for the tractor
Apparently, the complaints of residents of Riga about poorly cleaned sidewalks tired the city authorities. And now, when winter is almost over, residents have the opportunity to follow the sidewalk cleaning work on the map on the Internet.
This year, only sidewalks in the historical center of the city are being cleaned centrally, in total, 12 tractors from the Improvement Department and 10 more units of equipment through outsourcing are involved for this purpose.
Now every citizen of Riga will be able to see on the map on which particular street and on which particular day the sidewalks were cleaned. The data will change in real time, and as soon as the street is cleared, it will be displayed on the monitor in green.
Since work will begin in the spring on cleaning up the sand poured out in the winter, this will also be displayed on the map.
It is assumed that in the winter of 2024/2025, the municipality of the capital will be engaged in snow removal already on all municipal sidewalks of the capital. But next season – only in the center and surrounding areas.
The e-mail address of the card is hagberg.pgis.lv, as it was created in cooperation with the company Hagberg, which is the sidewalk cleaning subcontractor.