Acquisition of land for Tallinn-Pärnu highway reconstruction stalls

The Estonian Transport Administration is negotiating the acquisition of land for the reconstruction of the Libatse-Nurme section of the Tallinn-Pärnu highway. The current owner wants the state to exchange the land for other plots of the same value, however, no suitable locations have yet been identified.
To convert the almost 20-kilometer-long Libatse-Nurme section of the highway into a four-lane road, the Estonian state needs to acquire 16 plots of land, via the Transport Administration. The plots needed are currently owned by a forestry company.
The landowner has expressed willingness to exchange the plot it owns for state-owned land of the same value. The owner considers the land resource as more important to the company than any potential financial compensation. The owner also wants the state-owned land parcels to be located in the immediate vicinity or area. A land exchange would additionally save the company the bureaucratic work necessary to find a replacement for the resources it would be giving up.
A notice of initiation regarding the procedure was sent to the landowner at the end of 2023. In July 2024, the Transport Administration made an offer for the transfer of the land. However, it did not obtain the state's authorization to exchange the specific areas of land selected by the company.
"In this case, it turned out that the proposals made by the private owner were not suitable for the state," said Sülvi Seppel-Hüvonen, head of the Transport Administrations' land department.
"The state needed these specific pieces of land in order to fulfil its obligations. The processor responded to the landowner with its reasoning. The landowner then made a new selection in cooperation with the Transport Administration. However, this was also not considered suitable for exchange for a number of reasons."
The Transport Administration stressed that this was not a dispute, but just one of the possible procedures involved in transferring privately owned land to the state under the Acquisition of Immovables in Public Interest Act.
The landowner also confirmed that they had no objections to make to the Transport Authority. The landowner accepts that the state will purchase the, though he prefers an exchanged deal.
The Transport Authority plans to offer the landowner new land, but there is also the potential option of giving them compensation.
According to the authority, the delay in acquiring the land should not affect the start of the planned construction works.
"Generally, the land acquisition process is initiated a couple of years before construction starts, to allow time for lengthy procedures," said Seppel-Hüvonen.
"The start of construction can be delayed if lengthy litigation should arise. However, in this specific case, we hope to find the best solution in order to start the construction of the Tallinn-Pärnu highway on time. Up to now, we have not been able to point to any recent projects whereby the construction process has been delayed as a result of no agreement with the owner being reached."
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