15min wrote that the store staff reported being forced to lock the doors because they were “killed by a physical blockade.”
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According to the businessman, the Vilnius city municipality promised that the street maintenance work would last 3 months, but in reality, “the beginning of Trakų Street was blindly dug up and blocked for 7 months.”
“For seven months it was impossible to approach us. Completely zero turnover, huge warehouse stocks, and growing debts to suppliers. Retail trade survives only on working capital – when it runs out, you take loans to survive because each time you are given another promise ‘we will open soon.’ We borrowed three times, paying brutal interest just to stretch until the date, which was always postponed,” the businessman wrote.
On the same day, when asked by journalists about the small business outrage over the prolonged repairs on Trakų Street, V. Benkunskas stated that he did not see a direct causal link between the ongoing work and the difficulties experienced by businesses. According to him, the municipality allegedly communicated with businesses and tried to help by providing the opportunity to hang advertisements on construction tarps.
The situation has long since exceeded the inconvenience of repairs
Such a reaction from the capital’s mayor angered the businessman E. Rūkas, who is closing the “Supersymmetry” store. He provided a detailed response to the mayor on the social network “Instagram,” based on specific dates, official emails, municipal letters, and photo documentation.
“After three years of work, this is not a decision you make lightly. Especially when you see that one after another other businesses around you disappear, and the whole situation has long since exceeded the inconvenience of repairs.
Therefore, I decided to finally put the entire context of this story in one place. Not to complain again about mud, fences, or closed streets. It is about how the city plans large projects, how it assesses their impact on people and businesses, and what happens when plans start to diverge from reality,” said E. Rūkas.
The businessman said that although it was presented to the public that the work would be carried out in stages and coordinated with each other to cause as little inconvenience as possible, the reality was quite different. Already in the summer of 2025, the business located on Trakų Street was cut off from pedestrian flows because repairs were taking place not only on Trakų but also on Basanavičiaus streets. In winter, the street became “no man’s land,” where even the snow was not cleared, and the end date of the repair work was constantly postponed.
E. Rūkas emphasized that all this time, businessmen tried to talk, offered solutions, wrote to the municipality, requested information, and tried to understand when they could finally return to normal operations. However, according to him, instead of a normal dialogue, businessmen often received only formal responses, postponed deadlines, and new reasons why nothing could be done from the municipality.
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You can watch the businessman’s video HERE.
