Finland - projects

[c2R]

While looking to find out about work occurring around Lahti on routes 12 and 4, I stumbled across this website that lists current projects in Finland, so thought I'd post it here if it is of interest to anyone else.: https://vayla.fi/web/en/projects/all-projects

[Octaviadriver]

Very interesting, as I've been there a few times, though not for some time now as it was nearly 19 years ago that I was last visited the country. I've both flown there and driven there, so I remember a bit about the roads.

I've been there in both summer and winter, though the winter visit was a bad experience for me as I caught pneumonia and was in Helsinki hospital from Christmas to New Year on a drip!

In the last link, it's strange that the last project is in Russian. The project goes up to the Russian border, but not across it and the contractor is Finnish.

[FosseWay]

Very interesting, as I've been there a few times, though not for some time now as it was nearly 19 years ago that I was last visited the country. I've both flown there and driven there, so I remember a bit about the roads.

I've been there in both summer and winter, though the winter visit was a bad experience for me as I caught pneumonia and was in Helsinki hospital from Christmas to New Year on a drip!

In the last link, it's strange that the last project is in Russian. The project goes up to the Russian border, but not across it and the contractor is Finnish.

The project entitled Трасса E18 «Хамина–Ваалимаа» in Russian is the same as the one entitled E18 Hamina-Vaalimaa in English and likewise in Finnish.

I think all the projects are automatically dual language Finnish and English. Additionally, those that cover Swedish-speaking areas are in Swedish. There is no specific Russian section, and the Russian version of the E18 project in question has just been tagged onto the English section, which makes me think that they've just added an ad-hoc Russian version because the project goes up to the border and is of interest to Russians as well.

[c2R]

The other project about the causeway/bridges near Oulu looks interesting also...

[Owain]

Very interesting, as I've been there a few times, though not for some time now as it was nearly 19 years ago that I was last visited the country. I've both flown there and driven there...

As in, you've driven to Finland from the UK?

Wow - I've done some epic drives, but that must have been an odyssey!

[Euan]

Very interesting, as I've been there a few times, though not for some time now as it was nearly 19 years ago that I was last visited the country. I've both flown there and driven there...

As in, you've driven to Finland from the UK?

Wow - I've done some epic drives, but that must have been an odyssey!

The Tallinn - Helsinki ferry crossing would probably be the quickest way reach most of Finland, unless it was somewhere up in Lapland which might be more easily reached by crossing the Oresund Bridge.

[bothar]

I think all the projects are automatically dual language Finnish and English. Additionally, those that cover Swedish-speaking areas are in Swedish. There is no specific Russian section, and the Russian version of the E18 project in question has just been tagged onto the English section, which makes me think that they've just added an ad-hoc Russian version because the project goes up to the border and is of interest to Russians as well.

6000 vehicles per day. One suspects that if this road had been in England they wouldn't have built a motorway but just reduced the speed limit.

[c2R]

Very interesting, as I've been there a few times, though not for some time now as it was nearly 19 years ago that I was last visited the country. I've both flown there and driven there...

As in, you've driven to Finland from the UK?

Wow - I've done some epic drives, but that must have been an odyssey!

I've driven there and back a couple of times too. The Stockholm to Turku ferry/floating nightclub can be good fun, particularly on a Friday night. I've also done the long way round via the twin city of Tornio-Haparanda. In the middle of summer it really is a perfect place to drive - low AADT, very polite drivers, excellent quality roads, lots of daylight.

Most of the photos in the gallery are from one of the times I was there in 2006: https://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/wiki/ind ... ry:Finland

[WHBM]

The Tallinn - Helsinki ferry crossing would probably be the quickest way reach most of Finland, unless it was somewhere up in Lapland which might be more easily reached by crossing the Oresund Bridge.

Not really from the UK. As some may have read here, we have relatives in St Petersburg, Russia. The most effective driving way (eg large amounts of luggage/possessions) is through Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, and ferry to Turku. Going through Poland and the Baltics is rather circuitous and still a bit wild west country. Crossing the Russian border is still too challenging with a UK car so they drive a couple of hours up and across to meet up.

Driving in Finland is easy and straightforward. Have done multiple trips to Tampere, the quiet second city of the country, rather Far From the Madding Crowd but it still manages to have an urban motorway network with spacious US-style intersections and very little traffic. The construction boards inevitably state it's EU funded. Plymouth is the same population. Can you see Plymouth having anything like this ?

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Tampe ... 23.7609535

[c2R]

The Tallinn - Helsinki ferry crossing would probably be the quickest way reach most of Finland, unless it was somewhere up in Lapland which might be more easily reached by crossing the Oresund Bridge.

Not really from the UK. As some may have read here, we have relatives in St Petersburg, Russia. The most effective driving way (eg large amounts of luggage/possessions) is through Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, and ferry to Turku. Going through Poland and the Baltics is rather circuitous and still a bit wild west country.

I'd be wary of believing everything google says, Euan! I think it's biased against overnight ferries. I don't think I'd fancy the miles and miles of S2 through the Baltic states. WHBM is right, the best way is through Denmark and Sweden and the ferry from Stockholm to Turku if going to the south or middle of Finland.

[Euan]

The Tallinn - Helsinki ferry crossing would probably be the quickest way reach most of Finland, unless it was somewhere up in Lapland which might be more easily reached by crossing the Oresund Bridge.

Not really from the UK. As some may have read here, we have relatives in St Petersburg, Russia. The most effective driving way (eg large amounts of luggage/possessions) is through Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, and ferry to Turku. Going through Poland and the Baltics is rather circuitous and still a bit wild west country.

I'd be wary of believing everything google says, Euan! I think it's biased against overnight ferries. I don't think I'd fancy the miles and miles of S2 through the Baltic states. WHBM is right, the best way is through Denmark and Sweden and the ferry from Stockholm to Turku if going to the south or middle of Finland.

In general it isn't really the best idea to estimate a journey time to the minute if it includes a ferry crossing and there will be inaccuracies. If it was me I would definitely split the journey into different segments between ferries and look into them separately. Google's estimate might solely be on the basis of minimising the overall journey time rather than minimising the amount of driving involved.

[FosseWay]

How much driving is needed is dependent on where in Finland you start. At a minimum, you could start in Helsinki, Turku or Mariehamn (Åland), get the ferry to Stockholm, drive to Gothenburg (c. 4-5 hours), get the ferry to Kiel, drive to Hook of Holland (7-8 hours) and you're there. Overnight ferry from Finland, a leisurely drive across Sweden, overnight ferry to Kiel, a slightly less leisurely but nevertheless reasonable drive across D/NL, then overnight ferry to Harwich or Hull. Total 3 nights and the intervening 2 days, with about 12-13 hours' driving.

On the other hand if you start in Tornio or Jyvaskylä you would have to drive the length of Sweden (1000 miles) before you can even start to consider whether you're going to take ferries.

[Octaviadriver]

I've only driven to Finland once and that was back in 2000. We went on the ferry overnight from Harwich to Esbjerg, then the next day drove through Denmark and over the Øresund Bridge (it had only been opened a few weeks before our trip) and stayed overnight in the middle of Sweden. The next day, we went on to Stockholm and took the overnight ferry to Helsinki, where we arrived the next morning. As c2R mentions, the ferries are more like cruise ships! They are the Finnish equivalent of going to a resort for a couple of night as many enjoy regular trips to Stockholm for the day with an overnight stay on the ferry each way with plenty of entertainment. Using the ferries to travel overnight cut down on our journey time and didn’t involve as much driving as you’d first imagine.

Driving in Finland is helped with a population density of only 17 per sq. km, compared to 272 per sq. km. for the UK, so you don't have so much problem with congestion.

As 2CR says, driving to Finland via the Baltic States isn't so easy as going through Sweden. As I've mentioned before in other posts, I usually drive to Lithuania once a year (we're going in April this year) and there is now motorway from the Channel Ports to Warsaw, but east of Warsaw there’s plenty of S2, though improvements are starting to be made. Back in 2000, much of the motorway in Poland from the German border to Warsaw and the dual carriageway through Warsaw hadn’t been built, so the journey would have been much more difficult back then.

[Owain]

As in, you've driven to Finland from the UK?

Wow - I've done some epic drives, but that must have been an odyssey!

I've driven there and back a couple of times too [...] I've also done the long way round via the twin city of Tornio-Haparanda. In the middle of summer it really is a perfect place to drive - low AADT, very polite drivers, excellent quality roads, lots of daylight.

Careful .... don't go giving me ideas!

Most of the photos in the gallery are from one of the times I was there in 2006: https://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/wiki/ind ... ry:Finland

Great photos! It's very tempting...

[c2R]

Careful .... don't go giving me ideas!

It's possible to get to Copenhagen in a (long) day from London, although breaking the journey at somewhere like Brugge, Gent, or Eindhoven might make sense, especially if travelling from further afield.

I'd spend a day somewhere like that, then on to Copenhagen (you decide whether to cut the corner on the ferry or take the long way round by the bridge - both have their advantages. Spend a couple of days in Copenhagen if you've not been before, then up through the forests of Sweden - again, you can get to Stockholm in a day, although you might want to break the journey up somewhere like Jonkoping which is pleasant by the lake there. Again, spend a couple of days in Stockholm and get a boat across to Turku. Turku, Tampere, Lahti, Helsinki, Oulu and the twin city are all worth visiting, as is a passenger ferry across to Tallinn to spend the day there. Porvoo has some lovely wooden buildings on the river that is worth a detour also.

If you're tempted to visit the Nordkapp (I was), it's a long way and the weather wasn't great (foggy/rainy, wet, and cold) in the middle of summer. Still, it was interesting - clearly a very different way of life for villagers up there, mainly reliant on fishing it looks like.

If driving the long way back round, Gavle is worth visiting in december to see the goat, it goes without saying!


It's a shame that the Newcastle to Bergen ferry no longer runs, as you could finish off a three week roadtrip with a diversion around Oslo, Bergen, and Stavanger before getting the boat back to England, but instead it's back the way you came!

Edit - Gothenburg was lovely too!

[FosseWay]

If any of you ever decide to do this, feel free to detour via Gothenburg and say hi!

[Owain]

Careful .... don't go giving me ideas!

**Lots of UK-to-Finland tips**

Thanks for the suggestions!

I did visit Finland, flying from Dublin to Helsinki, back in 2016. I hired a car and spent a couple of days in Turku before returning to Helsinki, from which we took a day trip to Porvoo. I was actually there for work, but I took my partner with me and we had a great time.

If any of you ever decide to do this, feel free to detour via Gothenburg and say hi!

Definitely - I still haven't been to Sweden, although obviously I've seen it from an aeroplane! It was very big, and covered in snow.

[MJG]

Let me comment some of those interesting topics raised in this discussion:

Project Pages

The road plans are created in Finnish, and in some cases in Finnish and Swedish. Summaries in English may be available. Nowadays, the Google Translator does quite a good job in translating from Finnish to English. The result is not always correct, but most often in is understandable.

There are three layers for the road construction: The Infrastructure Agency (https://www.vayla.fi, earlier https://liikennevirasto.fi) is a country-level organization responsible for big projects. Most of the planning are done by the nine regional agencies (https://www.ely-keskus.fi). If a municipality is the key driver of the project, then it often takes the action to make the plans, too. Because of that structure, the plans are quite scattered around the internet space. However, the Infrastructure Agency and Regional agencies are currently running a project to make a single website for all projects.

Oulu-Hailuoto Bridge

Connecting the island of Hailuoto (pop. 1000) by a bridge has been a dispute for decades. The detailed plan is currently WIP.

Travelling to Finland By Car

The Tallinn-Helsinki ferries are shortest ferry connection to Finland, and there is a lot of capacity on that route. However, reaching Tallinn from the west Europe is subject to an extra effort. The driving distance from Calais to Tallinn is about 700 kilometers more than to Stockholm.

There are two shipping companies sailing the Stockholm-Finland routes year around. There are morning and evening departures on the Stockholm-Turku route (10.5 hours) and an evening departure on the Stockholm-Helsinki route (16-18 hours). My favourite route is the evening departure at Turku, because that arrives early in the morning (about 6AM) in Stockholm, thus leaving room for a long whole day ride. As said, the ferries are posh cruising ships (in addition to nice ones for quick travelling). BTW, they carry a substantial part of the import and export of Finland. Each of those ships have more than 2000 meters of car lane.

Even if the evening departure is an effective way to sleep and move in the same time, I recommend taking the day ferry Stockholm-Turku in either direction. The sailing through the archipelago of 20,000 islands is a wonderful experience.

EU Funding

The EU funding is quite minimal, say 10-20 per cent on selected projects on the TEN network. Finland is a net contributor the EU budget.

The Tampere Spaghetti is the only 4-level junction in Finland. It is the connection point of the road 3/9/E12/E63 multiplex (south), 3/E12 (west), 9/E63 (east), and the Tampere main access. Quite a big fraction of the traffic turns there, and that is visible in the design.

Roads

The motorway network in Finland is quite short, about 1000 kilometers. But because of the low population density, most rural main roads are quite fast to drive. In the summertime, it is not difficult to reach the 95 kph average speed on roads having the speed limit 100. The winter conditions are quite harsh to unexperienced drivers. Much of the lower-grade network are gravel roads.

Nordkapp, North Cape

In addition to taking an exhausting trip to North Cape crowded by tourists, I recommend putting some time to visit either Havøysund or Gamvik, the end points of the roads 889 and 888. Very scening roads, and less people.

My Website

I have a website https://tiet.mattigronroos.fi to show facts and history of the road network in Finland, with a lot of maps an pictures. In Finnish, but as said, Google makes quite a good job in translating. There is a short introduction in English, too, at https://tiet.mattigronroos.fi/Introduct ... in_Finland