Riga wants a spare bridge while Vanšu gets fixed. City Hall can’t even agree if that’s possible.
Mayor Viesturs Kleinbergs (Progresīvie) is pushing a temporary crossing next to Vanšu — about €20 million, one lane each way — so the city doesn’t choke when the real rebuild kicks in late 2027. He won’t green-light closing Vanšu until that spare is up. Weekday load on the cable-stayed span: roughly 55–60k vehicles, plus more than 20k public-transport passengers on 759 Rīgas satiksme runs.
The main rebuild is already locked: consortium Vanšu tilts for nearly €70 million, riverbank and Krišjāņa Valdemāra iela (Kronvalda to the bridge) first, then the span itself through 2029. Buy the temporary kit, Kleinbergs says, and the state can park it in civil-military reserves later — lease would cost about the same.
Then the deputies unloaded. Vicemayor Māris Sprindžuks (Apvienotais saraksts) called a one-year design-procure-build a utopia. Put the €20M into other streets and junctions instead, he says — and claims Rīgas satiksme and the mobility unit weren’t even in the room. Vicemayor Edvards Ratnieks (Nacionālā apvienība): same story, not discussed in coalition. Vicemayor (ex-mayor) Vilnis Ķirsis (Jaunā Vienotība) basically told everyone to stop fighting through the press.
Latvian Radio clocks the coalition still holding 34 of 60 seats — stability isn’t the scare. Communication is. Politologist Romāns Gagunovs: two opposite traffic plans, both public, before anyone locked a line inside the Dome. Mārupe and local businesses already sweating the jam.
We’ve been on this file — the €84M Vanšu fix and the traffic that comes with it, and how Riga road works keep landing sideways, like the Purvciems zebra to nowhere on Ilūkstes.
Sixty thousand vehicles don’t wait for coalition vibes. Pick a plan, Riga — before the Daugava becomes a parking lot.
