Background and Objective

This project is important not only for Riga and surrounding region, but also for the whole country and the European Union.

Riga city level

Development of the NTC is coherent with all three local long-term planning documents of Riga City, i.e. Long-term Development Strategy until 2025, Development Programme for 2006-2012 and Riga Spatial Plan for 2006-2018.
Long-term Development Strategy for Riga until 2025 provides the framework for all development and spatial planning documents concerning Riga. This strategy sets forth 17 different objectives of which 7 are directly linked to development of the NTC (its benefits and implementation):

Priority 2 – Economic development based on East-West route;
Priority 3 – Better urban environment with pronounced structure of communities;
Objective 11 – Diverse and growing economy;
Objective 12 – Partnership-based economy;
Objective 13 – Quick and convenient access to the city;
Objective 14 – Clean and green city;
Objective 15 – Safe urban environment.

Development programme for 2006-2012 details the priorities and objectives of the Long-term Development Strategy. Development of the NTC is part of the Transport infrastructure development and improvement programme and Task 2 of the Objective 13 Optimising and development of urban transport infrastructure.
However, content-wise and technically NTC is extensively translated into Riga Spatial Plan for 2006-2018, specifically the Chapter 9 Transport infrastructure of the Explanatory note. This chapter describes NTC as the main improvement in street network, increasing the speed of movement and capacity of the infrastructure in the ever-increasing traffic intensity. For instance, Spatial Plan gives a clear task of “moving trucks out of the central part of the city and creating a network of motorways, giving trucks possibility of unobstructed traffic. The new network of roads would help trucks to move inside the city and give the quickest access to destinations (in particular - the port) from outside”.

The Spatial Plan indicates that “according to results of traffic modelling, studies for construction of two crossings further down North from Vanšu Bridge are required to ensure normal traffic, and traffic is bound to increase in the farther future”. Therefore, the Spatial Plan suggests continued development of the Northern Crossing and Hansa Crossing, Northern Crossing being the priority as it is a part of the NTC.

Spatial Plan recommends building NTC as extension of Via Baltica into Riga, primarily to satisfy cross-border and regional transport needs. This approach is based on the special status of Riga as large part of traffic is generated by its agglomeration and there is a need to improve access to Riga Freeport, create efficient alternatives to the congested street network in the historic part of Riga. This would reduce congestions, time required to reach various destinations, improve air quality and bring down the cargo transportation costs (due to improved traffic flow), as well as shrink the maintenance costs for various services (due to reduced load of trucks on street surfacing).

The Spatial Plan for 2006-2018 suggests that further development of roads and motorways requires building Northern Corridor in three phases:

An alternative to Brīvības Street from Via Baltica leading into Riga and up to the Eastern Magistral;
Extension of the alternative to Brīvības Street up to the Northern Crossing over Daugava;
Continuation of the Northern Corridor on the left bank of the river Daugava.

The Spatial Plan suggests creating connections not only to motorways, but also to larger streets to maximise the benefits of NTC for Riga transport system. Specific solutions for such connections may be considered in further stages of NTC implementation.

Along with already mentioned traffic improvements, the Spatial Plan for 2006-2018 links development of NTC to future planning framework and considers NTC the main driver for development of Northern part of the city. Areas along the NTC (Podrags, Vējzaķusala, Čiekurkalns) are reserved for dense and intensive construction that would revive degraded territories and help create new residential areas. Planned development of these areas would fail without the NTC. However, to avoid that, spatial plans will have to be revised, which might have complex legal and financial consequences.

Riga region level

The Spatial Plan of Riga Planning Region was endorsed in 2007. This document provides regional perspective on the development of Riga Planning Region for the next 20 years.

Chapter “Infrastructure and accessibility” addresses the issues of transport development, including the NTC project. Several objectives and goals described under this section are to be construed as direct support to development of the NTC. For instance, the objective of developing common sustainable regional transport system (improve road infrastructure, traffic safety, reduce the number of places where various modes of transport conflict with pedestrians). Another objective of the plan is to improve international accessibility, make Riga Region one of the main transport nodes in Europe – convenient, safe and efficient node for cargoes moving from East to West and North to South (integrate regional transport system in Transeuropean transport network, develop connections towards East, thus provide for quick and safe traffic flows between West and East, as well as build connections to main international motorways).

On top of these general transport development aims, the Spatial Plan of Riga Region focuses also on the development of railways and public transport, and, of course, the road networks. Chapter “Infrastructure and accessibility” is very explicit in stating its support to the development of the NTC: “Regional spatial plan gives a special priority to projects addressing the problem of congestions in the city, including Northern Crossing of the river and its access roads. Northern Crossing and its access roads are designed to improve traffic in the city and divert traffic flows from the central part of it. This would help reduce traffic jams, improve transport infrastructure in the city and benefit the networks of the regional scale.”

National level

One of the key planning documents on the national level is the National Development Plan for 2007-2013. According to NDP there are various measures and priorities to be implemented in the field of transport to ensure successful development of the region. Majority of measures stated in this document are clearly favouring the development of NTC, for example:

ensure good and reliable planning for the Riga Region to provide accessible and efficient transport services to residents and guests of Riga, and the whole country, as well as integrate Riga in Transeuropean networks of the EU;
ensure development of international transport infrastructure, including modernisation of the main state roads, railway routes, ports and airports;
improve the compatibility of international, national, regional and local transport networks (logistics and actual links);
promote cooperation of state and municipal institutions in creation of proportional and integrated national transport system;
diversify transport and logistics services; create integrated national multimodal transport system capable of competing on European and global scale;
develop Latvia into transport and logistics hub for trading between Asia and Europe.
provide comfortable and safe traffic on the national road network according financial capacity and demand;
provide demanded port throughput capacity, competitive and efficient services in ports and other links of transport chain;
provide for continuous growth of exported transport and logistics services, ensure more rapid growth of transit flows through Latvian ports compared to other competing ports in the neighbouring countries.

On 20 December 2007 Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Latvia (henceforth – the Cabinet of Ministers) adopted a declaration on cooperation with Riga City Council in implementation of the Northern Crossing project and construction of its connections to the Via Baltica. This project has been given the priority over other transport projects in Latvia , and is aimed at achieving the objectives laid down by the National Development Plan for 2007-2013 and the Transport Development Guidelines. The declaration of the Cabinet of Ministers grants NTC the status of national significance project and will help bring Latvia closer to its national aims and objectives.

European Union level

One of the strategic objectives of NTC project is to create convenient links between Riga and Freeport on both banks of the Daugava River to national road network and European network (TEN-T). This objective gives the project international perspective.

The European Union has recognised the international nature of the NTC project and has granted from its transport budget funds required to finance the activities of the project. The EU co-financed 50% of costs or EUR 9.3 million required to prepare the required documentation for the project worth in total EUR 18.6 million, including:

50% or EUR 3.8 million from TEN-T 2005 programme for pre-feasibility study of NTC (total cost 7.6 million). Programme financed the 1st and 2nd phase of project (sketch design, EIA, geologic survey and hydrologic modelling), as well as traffic and financial forecast for the whole project;
50% or EUR 5.5 million from TEN-T 2007 programme for pre-feasibility study of NTC (total cost EUR 11 million). Programme financed the 3rd and 4th phase of project (sketch design and EIA) – technical, legal and financial advisory services to meet highest international project standards and draft tender documents for attracting private partners to implement the project.