Estonia's Central Bank Installs Stone Barrier After Repeated Vehicle Crashes

Eesti Pank, Estonia's central bank, is installing a row of stone blocks along its building in central Tallinn, at the junction of Kentmanni Street and Estonia Boulevard. The reason is a long record of collisions: over about 20 years, roughly twenty vehicles have hit the building's exterior wall, with the drivers generally under the influence of alcohol. The project is being carried out with the Tallinn city government and is due for completion by the end of next week.

Why this spot

The bank stands next to a left turn for traffic coming from Freedom Square (Vabaduse väljak) and its traffic lights, about 150 meters away. Vehicles are known to speed along this stretch of Estonia Boulevard, and at the turn the road runs out and they hit the bank building.

The blocks

The barrier is made of irregularly shaped dolomite blocks brought from Kaarma on the island of Saaremaa. Grasses planted beside them are expected to cover the stones by next summer, making the area in front of the bank on Kentmanni Street greener.

Rait Roosve, an adviser to the bank's board, noted that much of the property in the bank's quarter belongs to the Republic of Estonia, meaning its people, and that the bank has an obligation to protect it. Because the area is public urban space, the bank says it cannot and does not want to build a wall. The blocks are meant to ensure the safety of ordinary traffic and to stop cars and small trucks.

It is not a national defense structure. Roosve said the stones would slow a tank but that, given the masses involved, the tank would physically prevail; they would, however, stop it ramming straight into the wall. Bank management also recalled the April 2007 riots known as the "Bronze Soldier Night", during which the building remained adequately protected.