Estonian road network

The Estonian road network is divided into national roads, local roads, private and forest roads. The Estonian Road Administration is responsible for the construction and maintenance of national roads, local governments are responsible for local roads and respective owners are responsible for private roads.

Types of national roads

  • Main roads – connect the capital with other big cities, link those cities to each other and connect the capital and other big cities to important harbours, railway nodes and border posts.
  • Basic roads – connect cities to other cities and to main roads.
  • Secondary roads – connect cities to towns and small towns, towns and small towns to each other or to villages and all the aforementioned to main and basic roads.
  • Connecting roads – roads meant for bringing traffic together or channelling traffic flows, as well as distributor roads, access roads, ramps or other similar roads that have been built for the safe and smooth operation of an intersection of roads.
  • National ice roads – roads that correspond to clause 20 of § 20 of the Traffic Act and that have been added to the list of national roads.
  • Other national roads – roads that have been added to the list of national roads, but which do not have the characteristics of the above mentioned national roads.

As of 1.01.2023, the total length of Estonian national roads is 16,969 km, with the addition of up to 87.6 km of ice roads, depending on the weather conditions.

Among national roads, there are a total of 947 km of E-roads and 1,289 km of TEN-T roads.

1603 km (9.4%) of the national roads are main roads, 2,407 km (14.2%) are basic roads, 12,528 km (73.8%) are secondary roads and others national roads and 147 km (0.9%) are ramps and connecting roads, and 284 km (1,7%) walkways.

Total length of the Estonian road network
Road type Kilometers (km)
National roads 16,969 km
incl. main roads 1,603 km
basic roads 2,407 km
secondary roads and other national roads 12,528 km
connecting roads 147 km
Local roads 23,614 km
incl. highways 17,507 km
streets 5,311 km
walkways and cycle tracks 796 km
Private and forest roads* 48,799 km
A total of 89,382 km

* 01.01.2023 data of Statistics Estonia

Neljarajaline maantee

International roads

The Estonian road network also includes E-roads and TEN-T roads.

Read more
Puurmani sild

Bridges on national roads

Bridges are integral to roads in enabling road users to cross natural and man-made obstacles. There are 1010 bridges on Estonian national roads as of 01.01.2020.

Read more

Pavement types of national roads

As of 01.01.2021

Asphalt and cement concrete 5,181 km
Bitumen-gravel 3,517 km
Ash concrete and stabilised pavement 964 km
PSurface-dressing grave 2,640 km
Stone pavement 1 km
Gravel and soil roads 4,365 km
Total 16,668 km
Eesti teedevõrk

Last updated: 08.03.2023