Arctic Road Resilience for Climate, Safety, Accessibility, Functionality and Efficiency in Finnish Lapland

ongoing

In this Project, located in north-western Finnish Lapland and comprising both works and studies, 30.1 km of the European Road E8 infrastructure will be upgraded and statutory road plans for upgrading further 86.6 km of the road will be prepared. The Road E8 from city of Tornio to Finnish Norwegian border is the cross-border connection to Atlantic maritime ports and to Sweden. It is part of a Global Project Long-term development of the Road E8 from Tornio to Kilpisjärvi, with Phase I, Upgrade of the Road E8 Kolari–Palojoensuu and Kilpisjärvi– Norwegian border, completed in 2018, Phase II, Upgrade of Road E8 Palojoensuu–Kilpisjärvi to be completed in the ArcticSafe Project, and Phase III, Upgrade of Road E8 Tornio–Kolari, to be completed by the end of year 2033. The road section to be upgraded forms a bottleneck to transports due to the very poor condition of the road. It is prone to accidents, especially in winter, when the polar night and heavy snowfall worsen the conditions further. There is no detour connection, and therefore traffic accidents cause congestion, hampering rescue works. Altogether 30.1 kilometres of the critical arctic road will be improved. The road will be widened or, where needed, completely reconstructed. Part of the road will be realigned to enable improving road geometry. Three bridges are reconstructed, and road lighting is improved. All works take into account the requirements of the large special transports and the specific infrastructure requirements applicable to dual-use road infrastructure. In addition, statutory road plans for upgrading further 86.6 kilometres of the road are prepared to improve maturity of and hence, to enable implementing the works within the scope of the Global Project, long-term development of the Road E8 from Tornio to Kilpisjärvi. The upgraded road will increase climate resiliency of the road infrastructure, improve road safety and accessibility of the sparsely populated area, and will enhance functionality and efficiency of both civilian and military transports. Sites with permafrost melt damage are strengthened to avoid further damage in future, and dimensioning of drainage is increased to mitigate the impacts of bulge ice and frost heave. These three phenomena are estimated to increase in the area due to climate change that proceeds four times faster in the Arctic than elsewhere.