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Lithuanian road network
According to their capacity, social and economical significance, all the roads in Lithuania are divided into: national, local and urban. The total length of the road network is equal to 79 km.
National roads are divided in to main, national and regional roads.
National road network
Total length – 21320 km, of which:
– main (with improved pavement) – 1748 km, of which:
– motorways – 309 km;
– “E” roads – 1510 km;
– national – 4946 km, with improved pavement – 4946 km;
– regional – 14625 km, with improved pavement – 6965 km.
Density of national road network:
Total 326,9 km per 1000 sq. km, with improved pavement – 209,2 km per 1000 sq. km.
National roads on the basis of exclusive property rights belong to the State.
Local roads are divided into public and internal roads.
Public roads and streets by property right belong to the municipalities, while internal roads may belong to the state, municipalities, other legal and/or natural persons.
Motorways of European significance
Notwithstanding the fact, that the former Soviet Union together with other countries signed the European Agreement on Main International Traffic Arteries (AGR) in Geneva, as far back as on 25 November 1975, Lithuania is shown as the land with no roads on the E-network road map of Europe published in 1988.
After the re-establishment of Lithuanian independence the situation changed. Lithuania decided to join the AGR agreement by the Decree of the Government of 28 July, 1993, and the agreement was signed by Lithuania on 27 August 1993.
6 main Lithuanian roads have been included into the E-network roads of Europe in the period from 1996 to 2000:
E 28 Berlin–Gdansk–Kaliningrad–Kybartai–Marijampolė–Vilnius–Minsk–Gomel;
E 67 „Via Baltica“ Helsinki–Tallinn–Riga–Pasvalys–Panevėžys–Kaunas–Marijampolė–Warsaw–Wroclaw–Krakow–Budapest;
E 77 Pskov–Riga–Joniškis–Šiauliai–Tauragė–Kaliningrad–Gdansk–Warsaw–Krakow–Budapest;
E 85 Klaipėda–Kaunas–Vilnius–Lyda–Tchernovcy–Bucuresti–Alexandropouli;
E 262 Ostrov–Daugavpils–Zarasai–Ukmergė–Kaunas;
E 272 Klaipėda–Palanga–Šiauliai–Panevėžys–Ukmergė–Vilnius.
Corridors of the European road network
Lithuania is actively participates in the activities of the Transport Working Group created on the initiative of the European Commission. Therefore, the selected direction of the development of the transport system infrastructure is the reconstruction of the existing roads and railway lines engaged in international carriages in accordance with the development principles of the international transport corridors.
After the discussions with the representatives of other countries on the directions of such corridors across the territory of Lithuania, they were approved at the Conferences of the European Ministers of Transport in 1994 and 1997. It is specified in the documents and Mutual Memoranda of Understanding adopted at these conferences that two routes of international European transport corridors (TEN-T) cross Lithuania:
North–South direction: the corridor No.I – the motorway „Via Baltica“ and the railway line „Rail Baltica“, on the route Tallinn–Riga–Saločiai–Panevėžys–Kaunas–Kalvarija–Warsaw, and its branch No. IA (Tallinn–Riga–Šiauliai–Tauragė–Kaliningrad).
East–West direction: the branch IXB (Kiev–Minsk–Vilnius–Klaipėda) and the branch IXD (Kaunas–Kaliningrad) of the corridor No. IX.
When the new Euro-integration process started, the concept of the TINA network was elaborated at the end of 1999. Its structure is composed of the said transport corridors and other automobile roads of international significance included into the lists of the United Nations European agreement AGR (European Agreement on Main International Traffic Arteries). All these structures together with the international airports of Vilnius, Kaunas, and Palanga are regarded today as part of the Trans-European network in the territory of Lithuania.