Maintenance of waterways

The Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency manages approximately 25,500 aids to navigation spread along around 16,300 kilometres of waterways that are under its authority and located in Finnish sea and lake areas. Maritime aids to navigation can be used to indicate the location of the waterway. The aids to navigation may be of a fixed or floating kind. Approximately 7,700 of the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency’s aids to navigation are fixed and about 17,800 floating.

Types of aids to navigation include:

• lighthouses
• leading beacons,
• sector lights,
• edge marks,
• radar beacons,
• cairns,
• minor lights, beacon towers,
• buoys,
• spar buoys,
• direction lights and
• other marks.

Approximately 4,250 of the aids to navigation are illuminated (1,600 floating units, 2,650 fixed units). They may be powered by batteries, solar energy or mains electricity. Solar power is the primary source of energy for new and renovated light equipment.

Read more about aids to navigation

More detailed information on waterway maintenance

Waterway maintenance means proactive inspections of the aids to navigation year-round and repairing any faults detected. In the following, a few examples of what we do in practice:

Winter damage repair

At fairway maintenance, we check and repair all buoys and signs within one month of ice breakup within a specified area. Signs especially have a tendency to move, break or disappear. In wintertime, floating aids to navigation may be submerged under the moving ice mass.

After the winter, we also carry out inspections of floating and fixed aids to navigation and repair their faults.

Fairway users must always carry an up-to-date nautical chart with them and confirm their location on the basis of observations of fixed points of reference.

Service visits

During maintenance visits, we carry out clearing work and repairs of major faults or deficiencies detected during the spring inspection rounds.

Fault repair visits

We check fault reports and make repairs in accordance with the urgency classification based on the waterway class.

Buoy work

Buoy work includes inspecting anchoring and changing buoys.

Remote monitoring and control of aids to navigation

Remote monitoring is used, for example, for location and voltage inspections to facilitate inspecting aids to navigation. For example, if a floating aid to navigation has moved or its light has failed, we will be informed about it. Remote monitoring covers about 2,100 aids to navigation. Remote monitoring systems are mainly installed on merchant shipping routes.

The remote control also allows users to adjust the brightness of lighted beacons for a fixed period of time, thus improving the visibility of the lights.

Use and maintenance of canals

The Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency is responsible for the maintenance of 39 canal locks and also two heritage locks. Some of the lock canals are in self-service use, some are managed remotely, and some locks are operated by an on-site lock-keeper. The lock opening hours and operating instructions can be found on the canal webpages.