News

16th of March, 2009

Inauguration of E18 Turku-Helsinki motorway

A hugely important stage in Finland’s biggest road project is being celebrated today – the opening of the final section (Muurla-Lohja) of the motorway that runs from Turku to Helsinki. The new road will mean savings in costs, and journey times will be cut and easier to predict. There will also obviously be improvements in road safety.

The new road will have an enormous impact: it will mean savings in costs, and journey times will be cut and easier to predict. There will also obviously be improvements in road safety. For example, the estimated 250 accidents in the next ten years between Lohja and Muurla in which 50 people would die will be avoided. Savings in transport costs are estimated at 17 million euros a year. The benefits to society will work out as being half as much again as the actual costs.

The completion of the entire Helsinki – Turku will do much to boost the logistics chain and provide more opportunities for the use of ports and routes abroad. The competitiveness of this transit route will improve and the road’s international role will be better established. The road will be important to transport companies, regardless of whereabouts in Finland they are based.

A successful lifecycle project

The E18 Muurla–Lohja stretch of motorway is the second time the lifecycle model has been used for a road building project in Finland. The Finnish Road Administration commissioned the road construction company, Ykköstie, to finance, design, build and operate the 51 kilometre-long section of motorway, paying a service charge for this for 21 years.

The idea of the lifecycle model is to share the responsibilities for a major investment between the customer and the service provider, with the risk being assumed by that party that has the best skills, competence and ability to engage in risk management. With the lifecycle model a project’s costs correspond better with its economic lifetime, and enables the implementation of important projects to be brought forward, making use of the financial solutions afforded by the lifecycle model.

Road users and society both benefit if the service charge paid to the service provider is tied to the road’s availability and quality of service. The charge will depend, for example, on standards of maintenance, road safety factors and the environmental impact.

Road open in record time

Construction of the final stage of the Turku-Helsinki (E18 Muurla-Lohja) began in October 2005. Despite the problems in the final phase the road was completed in record time and was wholly open to traffic by the end of January.

The construction work faced many challenges: numerous specialist structures, such as the 75 bridges and seven tunnels, with their safety systems,. Then the environmental impact, including issues to do with flying squirrels, nature reserves, noise barriers and the protection of groundwater, placed additional demands on the construction work and the general debate. All these problems have now been resolved.

There was a last minute hitch with the tunnel safety and traffic control systems, which delayed the opening of the section between Lahnajärvi and Lohja - which involved the construction of five pairs of tunnels - by a good two months. The motorway was opened once the safety standards for the systems were satisfactory, but they will not be fully operational for a while and so traffic is being temporarily diverted onto the old road.

E18 at the Russian border by 2015

A Government Programme states that the E18 will be motorway up to the Russian border by the year 2015. To do this a lot of planning and construction input is still required, and it includes four major highway projects:

- The improvement to Kehä III (Helsinki ring road): phase 2

- The Koskenkylä – Kotka section

- The Hamina bypass

- The Hamina – Vaalimaa section

Building work on the Hamina bypass will hopefully get under way by 2010. The Koskenkylä – Kotka link, as a lifecycle project, would require initial funding in 2010. Improving the viability of the Kehä III ring road - the eastern end – will also be very important for the dockyard at Vuosaari. The Hamina – Vaalimaa section is scheduled for later. Altogether these projects will amount to 850 million euros in construction costs.