Estonia: no roads across the Baltic ice
For the first time since 2019, the freezing temperatures mean that motor vehicles could travel across the ice from Estonia's mainland to its islands. However, the authorities are refusing to set up ice roads on the grounds that they are too expensive, too risky, and that no money has been allocated to such roads in the budget. Locals are now driving across the ice at their own risk in some places.
Government cutting costs at the people's expense
Postimees finds the transport authority's arguments against opening ice roads incomprehensible:
“Unfortunately, we are once again witnessing how our state cuts costs at the expense of its people. Ice roads offer island residents an alternative connection when ferry services are disrupted by thick ice, low water levels or other technical restrictions. Ice roads mitigate risks and save islanders time and money; they are not an unnecessary luxury. ... Anyone who has ever driven on an ice road knows what safety measures are necessary. ... These measures are neither particularly complicated nor overly expensive.”
Bureaucratic convenience
Delfi accuses the authorities of being completely inflexible:
“It's nothing unusual for the Baltic to be frozen. ... Strangely enough, however, we have lost our ability to react. Nature itself has created a natural bridge for us, a thick layer of ice connecting all the islands. But for reasons of bureaucratic convenience, the state, represented by the transport authority, has decided that no ice roads will be built this year. It's too expensive and alternative transport is available, they say. But this is not a matter of cutting costs but rather of sheer laziness.”