This year, dust suppression will be carried out on almost 440 km of gravel roads, which will cost more than 700,000 euros, the LETA agency was informed by the State Joint Stock Company "Latvijas valsts ceļi" (LVC).
Dust suppression is carried out once a season, and more than 80% of the planned sections of gravel roads have already been treated.
As explained by LVC, dust suppression of gravel roads is not part of the mandatory maintenance work; however, taking into account the requests of residents, the company performs this work annually on a limited scale according to financial capabilities.
The sections where dust suppression is carried out are determined by several criteria. Dust suppression is conducted near residential buildings, in populated areas, near groups of residential houses, educational, medical, and social institutions, in publicly significant places where people gather, as well as near enterprises.
Dust suppression is carried out if the roadway is within 20 meters of such objects, the average annual traffic intensity is 100 or more vehicles per day, and the intensity of freight traffic is 20 or more vehicles per day.
In total, there are about 10,000 kilometers of gravel roads in the state road network.
