The purpose of demolishing the viaduct is to gain knowledge of and refine skills in conducting delaying operations at viaducts as tactical strongpoints, one part of which is the construction of such barriers for military defence. Additionally, blasting will help to reduce the duration of the demolition work and related noise, as well as general disturbance to ordinary citizens.
During the demolition work, road users should be aware of the temporary total suspension of traffic. The stoppage will last for around 2-3 minutes.
"Kanama viaduct is decades old and depreciated and its current load bearing capacity of 80 tonnes is not sufficient for transporting defence equipment or carriage of special goods, causing problems to many carriers, as the detours are long and inconvenient. Once the viaduct is reconstructed and its load capacity is increased to 360 tonnes, the situation will be much more comfortable for all users," explains Olari Valter, bridge analyst at the Transport Administration. "As Kanama viaduct is a MilMob site, we are very pleased to include the Defence Forces in the process already before the start of the construction work, thus enabling them to gain further knowledge and experience in blasting a viaduct for the purpose of blocking."
"One of the tasks of the Engineer Battalion of the Defence Forces is to block or complicate the advance of the enemy while ensuring the mobility of our own units. The demolition of Kanama viaduct gives us another very good opportunity to practice demolishing a real site and put the unit's professionalism to the test in order to be better prepared for performing wartime tasks while also supporting the Transport Administration in improving infrastructure at a major traffic junction," said Captain Urmas Tonto from the Engineer Battalion of the 1st Infantry Brigade of the Defence Forces, person responsible for the blasting operations.
The Engineer Battalion will be joined by the British engineers of the NATO battle group stationed at Tapa and the Estonian Defence League Lääne District in preparing the blasting operations of Kanama viaduct.
Lauri Kanarbik, Project Manager of GRK Eesti AS, which is carrying out the reconstruction work on the junction, noted that the blasting of the old viaduct saves a lot of time compared to conventional demolition and therefore causes minimal disruption to traffic. "This is the second time GRK is performing such demolition work. We will close all traffic on this section of the Tallinn-Pärnu highway for a short period of time, and that is why we did thorough preparatory work beforehand in order to choose the time for the work when, according to the studies, the traffic is the least busy," said Kanarbik. "The demolition will take place late in the evening, and we are planning to clear one lane of the road of debris by morning. After that, we will restore traffic there as a 2+1 lane road."
A new viaduct will be built once the old one is demolished and the site cleared. The work is performed by GRK Eesti AS. Owner supervision is exercised by OÜ Toomtsentrum and OÜ Teehoiu Partnerid.
The cost of the work is 13.8 million euros plus VAT. The investment is co-funded from the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) in the amount of 5.05 euros via military mobility project EstMilMob, which aims at improving the transport connections to Tapa Army Base over the next three years.
The viaduct will be closed to traffic from 4 November until the end of May next year and road users will have to allow extra time. The detours in each direction and a more detailed traffic plan can be seen in the explanatory animation, which is available HERE. You can read more about the traffic restrictions and changes applicable during the demolition work HERE. More information can be found in the Tark Tee portal.
The newly renovated viaduct is scheduled to open in early summer, with all works due to be completed by the end of September 2025.
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