The cones are gone. Dzirnavu iela between Tērbatas and Skolas is open again — and this time it comes with a proper bike lane.
Riga Council confirmed it on Wednesday: the Tērbatas–Skolas rebuild is finished and fully open to traffic. Works started in spring 2025 and moved in phases across one of the busiest bits of the historic centre.
Key facts
- Where: Dzirnavu iela from Tērbatas to Skolas, including the Dzirnavu–Tērbatas intersection
- Opened: fully open to traffic as of the 4 November announcement
- Started: spring 2025, first Tērbatas–Brīvības, then Brīvības–Skolas
- New: bike lane separated from the pavement, fresh roadway and sidewalks, new crossings at Galerija Rīga and at Baznīcas iela
- Contract: €477,941.39 excluding VAT for the construction works
What changed on Dzirnavu iela?
Drivers get a renewed roadway. Walkers get rebuilt sidewalks. Cyclists get their own lane, split off from people on foot. The council’s release says different colours and materials mark out the car lane, the bike lane and the pedestrian zone, so who belongs where is clearer at a glance.
Two new pedestrian crossings went in — one by Galerija Rīga, one at Baznīcas and Dzirnavu. Green beds with low planting sit at the intersections for sightlines, and more planting sits in widened sidewalks and the parking/bike-rack strip without blocking cars. Dense underground utilities complicated the job, and Rīgas ūdens had to finish its pipe work before the street rebuild could start.
Where does the new bike lane connect?
The rebuilt stretch is a link in the bike network. It ties Skolas iela’s bike infrastructure to the Island Bridge (Salu tilts), the Central Station area and Vilhelma Purvīša iela’s bike route — a cleaner path through the middle of town if you’re on two wheels.
It’s a quiet city win: a street you can use again. Bigger mobility opens keep landing too — the Kundziņsala overpass is already pulling port trucks off centre streets, after a season of centre pinch points like the Vanšu Bridge Old Town exit closure. Mid-November walks through town still need an eye on the November holiday road closures.
Take the lane. Centre streets don’t often get this clean a reset.
Photo: Dzirnavu iela, Riga, in 2010 before the rebuild, Laurijs / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
