Roadworks on your street: which markings to trust when there are two

A dug-up lane, yellow lines across the familiar white ones, a sign on a portable stand — and someone behind you already in a hurry. It looks like chaos, but it is a seasonal schedule of works plus a short hierarchy the rules spell out directly. What catches people out is different: the driver enters still reading the street from memory rather than what is in front of them.

In autumn the city opens up its streets — that is a schedule, not chaos

The warm season ends, and with it the window for replacing a heating main or restoring asphalt after underground work. So autumn brings noticeably more roadworks in Riga, and they last weeks, not days.

None of it is random: works that open up a street surface are registered with the city department, and that register is public. Roadworks on your route are something you can look up rather than discover with your bumper.

Yellow markings outrank white ones — and it says so explicitly

Road markings in Latvia are white, except a few yellow lines; the Ceļu satiksmes noteikumi (CSN — Latvia's road traffic regulations, Cabinet Regulation Nr. 279) list them in point 292. Two appear specifically at works sites. A solid yellow line (marking 947) separates opposing flows, marks lane boundaries and no-entry sections, and marks the carriageway edge where stopping and parking are banned; crossing it is forbidden — point 292.26. A broken yellow line (marking 948) marks lane boundaries — point 292.27.

Then the part that matters: a driver follows markings 947 and 948 even when they contradict other road markings — point 293. The old white line showing through from underneath no longer demands anything of you in law, even when it is the more visible of the two.

A temporary sign outranks both a permanent sign and the markings

Two separate rules apply. If a temporary sign — on a portable stand, on a roadworks vehicle — means something different from the stationary sign, you follow the temporary one: point 249. If it contradicts the markings, you again follow the sign: point 296. The same rules hide a useful detail: at works sites the white background of temporary signs may lawfully be yellow — a cue that this sign applies here and now.

In order, from strongest to weakest:

• A traffic controller — their signals and instructions outrank the lights, signs and markings (point 55).
• A temporary sign — outranks a stationary sign and the markings (points 249 and 296).
• Temporary yellow markings 947 and 948 — outrank other markings (point 293).
• Permanent white markings — everything you are used to seeing on this street.

One honest caveat: no general rule in the Latvian regulations says "a sign always beats a marking" — what is written down concerns temporary signs specifically.

Why the sign stands somewhere you are not expecting it

The roadworks sign (named "Uz ceļa strādā" in the rules, number 118) warns of a section where work occupies the road or affects traffic conditions — point 250.14.

Now the distances. Inside a built-up area a warning sign goes 50–60 metres before the hazard; outside one, 150–200 metres (point 251). Any other distance is stated on the supplementary sign "Attālums līdz objektam" — distance to object, number 801 (point 285.1). For short-term works, sign 118 may stand just 10–15 metres before the site, with no supplementary sign — point 253.

So in the city you get fifty metres at best, sometimes ten. The sign is not late; it stands where the rule puts it — the driver arrives late. One more detail: a temporary speed restriction applies until the nearest junction after the sign, or until a cancelling sign (point 269) — not until the excavators stop.

A narrowing: the decision is made before it, not inside it

A narrowing rarely arrives out of nowhere. Marking 938 warns of an approaching narrowing of the carriageway — where the number of lanes in your direction drops; it is used alone or with the "Ceļa sašaurinājums" (road narrows) signs, numbers 107, 108 and 109 (points 292.17 and 250.5).

Then a rule many remember imprecisely: where passing an oncoming vehicle is difficult, the driver on whose side the obstacle lies gives way — point 111. On a works site that obstacle is your own blocked lane, so you yield.

And changing lanes. When all lanes are occupied, you may change lane to turn, U-turn, drive around an obstacle, or stop — point 97. Getting around roadworks fits, so the merge is lawful. But lawful is not timely: you decide where you saw the warning, not where your lane runs out.

The entry is more dangerous than the site itself

Inside the works site drivers usually concentrate: it is narrow, there are cones, speeds are low. The trouble is the entry — a few seconds to read a new sign, new markings, other people's manoeuvres and workers right beside the lane, and decide where you are going.

The rules ask something simple: choose a speed that accounts for road conditions and especially visibility — point 99; and if a dangerous obstacle appears ahead that you are able to notice, reduce speed, stop, or drive around it safely — point 100. In lessons I put it like this: the speed you pick on the approach is not for the works site, but for the fact that you must decide sooner than you would like. The same habit is in common beginner mistakes.

How to check your route in advance

Before you set off, open three live sources:

• The register of roadworks — the works list of the city's outdoor space and mobility department: address, type of work, contractor, dates and status.
• The traffic-restriction map — "Satiksmes ierobežojumi Rīgā", showing works and closures on a city plan.
• Restriction notices — the municipality's news feed, with street closures and dates.

A word on navigation apps. An app sees traffic slowing, not that the markings on a stretch have changed or a lane narrowed. News of a new restriction reaches it late, sometimes never. It answers "where is the queue", not "what is on the asphalt".

What this means on the CSDD exam

The CSDD (Ceļu satiksmes drošības direkcija, the Road Traffic Safety Directorate) does not publish the exam route, and it changes; roadworks appear on it as unexpectedly as anywhere else. Nothing to memorise — which is why a works site is a good test: the examiner sees whether you read the situation or drive from memory.

Failing here does not look like reckless driving. It looks like hesitation: braking at the narrowing; following the white line because it is more familiar than the yellow; missing a temporary sign because you looked in its usual place. Autumn makes it more visible — see the CSDD exam in autumn and how to prepare for the CSDD driving test. The mistake is the same as in Riga's 30 km/h zones: the driver decides they already know the answer instead of looking.

Roadworks are not an obstacle so much as a hint: for a few weeks they show whether you drive with your eyes or your memory.

Rules verified against the current consolidated text of the Ceļu satiksmes noteikumi (Cabinet Regulation Nr. 279), September 2026. Regulations change — check the current version on likumi.lv.