Administrative changes
According to the Order by the Minister of Motor Transport and Roads of the Estonian SSR, Order No 596 dated 25 December 1974, the Road Building Administration was renamed as Road Repair and Construction Administration No 2 (TREV-2).
Building a production plant in Pääsküla
A rapidly developing company needed a production plant that would satisfy modern technical requirements. In 1973, PRI Eesti Tööstusprojekt compiled a project for building the production plant at Pärnu Mantee 463. The building work was begun in the same year. In spring 1978, the administration started moving from its small building in Tulika Street into the now-ready building in Vana-Pääsküla. Moving took time and lasted for approximately half a year, and from then on the main office has remained at this new address.
Construction and technical upgrade
For many years, chief engineer Gunnar Laev stood behind the implementation of new technologies and equipment. Being a road engineer he was seriously interested in the new technologies and equipment that were being brought into use.
Starting in 1977, computer-aided control systems were used for the production and laying of asphalt concrete as well as for grouting boundary stone. The purchase of a modern twelve metre-wide asphalt distributor named TITAN became possible in 1982 due to building work being carried out at Muuga Harbour. Although the harbour was the legal owner of TITAN, it was at the disposal of TREV-2 in the 1980s. Most of the work on the Tallinn-Narva and Tallinn-Tartu highways was achieved with the help of this distributor. In the light of large-scale forthcoming changes, TITAN was sold to Belarus at the end of the 1980s.
In 1981 a Vari-Former machine for building concrete kerbs was purchased at one of the Moscow exhibitions.
Besides the TITAN distributor and the Vari Former building machine, a machine for shaping the base levels of roads was put to use in the 1980s. Its technology comes from the USA, from the CMI complex. With the help of a machine with a computer-aided control system that was produced by licence in the USSR, a quality base was prepared for the TITAN distributor. Although it was necessary to tinker with the machine, its use provided great results.
The adoption and development of new technologies in conditions of decreasing efficiency in the 1980s was not an easy task. In spite of the difficulties, TREV-2 remained the leading road building company in the old Estonian SSR during the whole Soviet period. Technologies that were put to use were new and cutting-edge for Estonia. Construction and technical solutions used during the building of the main highways were more complicated than the average throughout the Soviet Union.
Landmarks in road building
Due to the Olympic Games in 1980, hosted by Moscow and with the yacht regatta being held in Tallinn, the biggest projects for TREV-2 was the reconstruction work that needed to be carried out on the Tallinn-Narva, Tallinn-Tartu and Tallinn-Pärnu highways.
Olympic projects that required special attention included the building of the Tallinn-Pärnu highway and the Kanama road junction, renovation work on the Ruu-Aaspere road section of the Tallinn-Narva highway, and the building of Olympics infrastructure in Tallinn itself. The completed Ranna Street project was nominated for an Estonian award.
In continuation of the direction of work signalled by the Olympics, by 1980 the rapid preparation work for reconstruction duties on the Ruu-Aaspere section of the Tallinn-Narva highway (totalling 57 km) was begun. The aim was to build a Category I highway (a two-lane road with a central reservation). It was necessary to construct either a right-hand or left-hand driving direction during the works. At the same time as work was being carried out on the Narva highway, the question of carrying out reconstruction work on the Tartu highway was raised. At that time it looked anything but a modern highway.
Some other large projects of that period that are worthy of attention include the renovation work on the Jagala-Raasiku section of road, reconstruction work on the Tallinn-Viljandi highway, and also on the Liiapeksi-Loksa road section. In the period between 1986-1989, reconstruction work was carried out on the Tallinn ring road as far as the 31.5 kilometre mark, which included building the crossroads on the Petersburg highway, both projects being important.
