Vehicle Count Finds Traffic Tripled on Ice Roads
During the winter, a total of 55,663 vehicles used the six officially opened ice roads in Estonia, which was almost three times more than the year before.
In the winter of 2009-2010 there were four official ice roads available, used by a total of 17,214 vehicles.
The 3.5 kilometer ice road which connected the west coast resort Haapsalu with the Noarootsi Peninsula in Lääne County, was open for the longest period, 51 days, and was used by 11,012 vehicles according to the official count, Allan Kasesalu, spokesman for the Road Administration told uudised.err.ee.
The largest number of vehicles, 17,112 used the Kuivastu-Virtsu ice road, which opened for 24 days and connected the island of Muhu - a gateway to the largest of Estonian islands, Saaremaa - with the mainland.
The 25 kilometer Heltermaa-Rohuküla ice road between the mainland and the island of Hiiumaa was the longest. 14,091 cars were counted using it during the 32-day period.
Ice roads were open for traffic 8 to 11.5 hours a day, with occasional traffic bans due to difficult weather conditions. Only vehicles with a laden weight of up to 2.5 tons were allowed to use them.
Altogether, the preparation and maintenance of the official ice roads cost around 278,000 euros. Heltermaa-Rohuküla, for which the Road Administration allocated 104,000 euros, was the costliest.
Ingrid Teesalu