Estonia’s frozen sea route lets residents drive between islands

After temperatures plunged to minus 10 degrees Celsius, Estonia officially opened a 20-kilometer ice road connecting the islands of Saaremaa and Hiiumaa, transforming a stretch of the Baltic Sea into a temporary highway. Ferry travel had grown difficult in the deep cold, and some residents had already begun risking spontaneous crossings over the frozen expanse. Now, the crossing has traffic rules, engineers and a green light.

For Hiiumaa's 9,000 residents, the road is more than a novelty. It is a vital link to the larger Saaremaa, home to 31,000 people, and from there to schooling, shopping and mainland Estonia. But for locals, the significance runs deeper than logistics, says the Associated Press.

Hergo Tasuja, the mayor of Hiiumaa, calls the ice road "part of our culture." He describes an inherited relationship with the water that shifts with the seasons. "For generations and generations, local people who live here, especially those who live near the sea, swim and use boats in the summertime," he said. "And in winter, it's in their blood to go to the sea" and step out onto the ice.

That instinct had been on pause. After a string of mild winters, this is the first time in eight years that the ice has thickened enough to support an official route. The sea, it seems, finally remembered how to be solid.

Behind the romance of driving across frozen waves lies a precise and somewhat nerve-racking science. The road is constructed and maintained by Verston Eesti, whose workers measure ice thickness every 100 meters to ensure it meets the minimum requirement of 24 centimeters — roughly 9 1/2 inches — before cars are allowed to pass.

"Preparing the road is not easy," said Marek Koppel, a road maintenance supervisor at the company. The challenge is constant: ice shifts, cracks and responds to pressure in ways asphalt never would.

Drivers are given rules that sound almost philosophical. Travel either below 20 kilometers per hour or between 40 and 70 kph; middle speeds are forbidden because they can create vibrations that fracture the ice. Vehicles cannot exceed 2.5 tons and must keep their distance without stopping. In a detail that feels counterintuitive, passengers are prohibited from wearing seat belts so they can exit quickly in an emergency, with doors kept easy to open.

For some, the crossing is both practical and unforgettable. Alexei Ulyvanov, a resident of Tallinn who drove the route with his children, described the experience with calm understatement: "The road was pretty good, it was easy to ride." His motivation was simpler still — to show his children "that it's possible to ride a car over the sea."

In Estonia, that sentence is not fantasy but seasonal fact.

The success of the Saaremaa-Hiiumaa route has prompted authorities to contract two additional ice roads linking mainland Estonia with smaller islands — provided the cold holds long enough to keep the sea in working condition.

For a few weeks each winter, the Baltic stops being a boundary and becomes a bridge. In a country accustomed to negotiating its geography with boats and ferries, the most reliable route may yet be the one that appears only when everything else freezes.