Maintenance backlog funding improves long stretches of road
The roadworks for this summer are already going strong in certain areas, but some of the paving contracts, whose competitive tendering is managed by the ELY Centres, have still not been decided. In addition, the decision on some of the roadworks will only be made after the measurements of the road network’s condition in the spring have been completed.
“Based on my experience, I’d estimate that we will pave 3,500 kilometres of road in the summer of 2016, which is 500 kilometres more than before,” says Juho Meriläinen, an expert in road surface maintenance from the Finnish Transport Agency.
“The opportunity to increase the number of kilometres is partly due to affordable bitumen, but it is also due to the maintenance backlog package granted by the Finnish Government that provided approximately 30 million euros in additional funding for new paving this year. Taking account of the maintenance backlog funding, roughly 150 million euros will be used for paving this year,” says Meriläinen.
Roadworks longer than 15 kilometres and located on a section of road with high daily traffic (more than 6,000 vehicles/day) are considered to cause significant disturbances to road traffic. In the coming summer, such sites can be found in North Savo and South Ostrobothnia: There are as many as three roadworks that may cause significant disturbances to road traffic on Highway 5 and one on Highway 18.
There are also significantly larger roadworks of 20–40 kilometres in length on the summer schedule, but they are located in a road network with relatively low traffic on average.
There are also roadworks disturbing traffic significantly in Uusimaa.
The roadworks of this summer will benefit road users in the future
“We will pave more roads this summer, which benefits road users in the long run, but naturally the increase in roadworks also disturbs the traffic more,” says Director Jukka Karjalainen, Maintenance Department, Finnish Transport Agency.
“On busy roads, the aim is to carry out the paving causing as little disturbance as possible to traffic. This is why some of the work is done at night, when there is less traffic. However, working at night is not always possible, because the costs, workers’ ability to cope and safety must be taken into account,” Karjalainen says.
Karjalainen advises road users to check the location of roadworks during the summer using the Finnish Transport Agency’s Liikennetilanne (Traffic status) website, which also provides up-to-date information on disturbances in road traffic and roadworks in progress.
Map application provides advance information on the location of roadworks
Currently, the map application shows the paving sites, bridge repair sites and small investment projects in 2016. Larger projects will be added to the application before midsummer, and the map service will be updated during the summer as the plans on paving and investment projects become more detailed.
“This map service presents the road investment and maintenance projects that are starting or have already started in 2016 as well as information on the location of roadworks. When the contractors start to work at a certain site, the information on the roadworks, the disturbances they cause to traffic and an estimate on the duration of the roadworks can be found via the Liikennetilanne service,” explains Project Manager Hanna-Mari Miettinen, Finnish Transport Agency. This means that the new map application shows the maintenance sites throughout the year, while the Liikennetilanne service shows the up-to-date status of roadworks.
A new map application on roadworks
Further information:
Roadworks during the summer: road maintenance expert Juho Meriläinen, tel. +358 (0)29 534 3564 or firstname.lastname(at)liikennevirasto.fi
Map application: Project Manager Hanna-Mari Miettinen, tel. +358 (0)29 534 3601, firstname.lastname(at)liikennevirasto.fi