A 32km stretch of the E18 European motorway from Hamina to Vaalimaa near the Russian border. In operation since 2018

Background

The principal shareholder in the E18 Hamina to Vaalimaa motorway project, Meridiam has continued its involvement in the upgrading of Finland’s infrastructure. This was the second public private partnership Meridiam has formed with the Finland Transport Agency (FTA). It consists of the major reconstruction and upgrade of Finland’s historical Route 7 highway to motorway standard.

The road is a vital transport corridor for Finland, going from Turku in the west to Helsinki and the Russian border at Vaalimaa. Hamina to Vaalimaa was the last section to be upgraded to motorway standard, giving an economic boost to Finland’s southern cities and the wider European trade and commerce. The E18 is part of the Trans-European Network connecting Helsinki and Scandinavia to St Petersburg.

The design and construction works of the Project were conducted by YIT. O&M of the overall 59km corridor is being performed by YIT.

Environmental protection activities have been undertaken during construction and during the operations of the road:

• Flying squirrels’ territories were taken into account when planning the motorway alignment. The cross-section of the motorway has been narrowed in order to improve the flying squirrels’ possibilities of crossing the road, which reduces the disruption caused by the interruption of an ecological corridor. Several feeding and resting areas, as well as forests highly suited to flying squirrels remain in the immediate vicinity of the road. Flying squirrels are still monitored.
• Before construction, terrain inspections at all five waterway bridges were carried out to identify bats’ feeding in the area. These inspections have continued during construction and operation.
• Ecological pathways were also secured with two green bridges for big animals, 27 underpasses for the small ones, one crossover for flying squirrels and suitable shore structure under bridges for otters.
• The historical landmark Salpalinja was carefully protected.

Stage:

In Operation, Completion date 14 November 2018