Kalliosalmi bridge – removing a bottleneck on a comprehensive network road

ended

The overall objective of the project “Kalliosalmi bridge – removing a bottleneck on a comprehensive network road” is to remove a serious bottleneck formed by an old, deteriorated bridge on the TEN-T comprehensive network road 82. The road runs through the Rovajärvi military exercise area – the largest exercise area in Western Europe – and connects the cities of Kemijärvi and Rovaniemi in Finland. The works project improves the road connection and accessibility of the exercise area and the cities. The project aims to improve the traffic flow and increase the capacity for troops and materials of the road section running inside a military exercise area. In addition, the civilian and military transport across the Kalliojoki river will be less prone to disruptions. The project’s main activities consist of building a new bridge at Kalliosalmi over the Kalliojoki river and of realigning the road due to the new bridge location. Connections to the properties along the 650- meter-long road section will be reorganized and noise barriers built. The old, deteriorated bridge will be demolished once the new bridge can be used. The bridge will be 48 meter long and have a carriageway width of 9,5 meter. Following the completion of the project, road safety and traffic fluency will improve, leading to better travel time predictability and travel time savings especially during large military exercises. Emissions will decrease based on fewer road maintenance. Noise disturbance for the areas surrounding the road will also decrease. The project will comply with the dual-use technical requirements (No 1-8) for roads as defined in the Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2021/1328.