Development of International Corridors in Lapland Comments by Jorma Leskinen, Finnish regional road authority in Lapland Jorma Leskinen 26.11.2014
Aug 06, 2015
Development of International Corridors in Lapland
Comments by Jorma Leskinen,Finnish regional road authority
in LaplandJorma Leskinen
26.11.2014
Focus on Roads
� The need for good road connections is obvious� Improving present roads is environmentally sustainable
and serves the whole community� Reconstruction work can be done even with a limited
financing section by section, although it takes time� Social acceptance for improving is easier to achieve than
that for building new transport infrastructure� Border crossing roads should be planned together with
authorities on both side
2
E8 Tornio - Skibotn
� Important connection between Norway and Finland� Parts of the road date back to the World War II� The Northernmost 200 km in Finland need repairing
• Should be widened to 8 m• Geometry needs to be improved in many places• Bearing capacity should be improved
� Plans have beenready for 10 years
� Financing is the problem
3
Finnish initiatiative to the NDPTL
� Proposal of new roads to added to the NorthernDimension road maps
� Together with Norway� Railway projects included� Approval would make it
possible to use NorthernDimension financinginstruments
4
Conclusions
� A railway may be a solution in the long term, but itneeds a continuous large cargo volumes to be viable- Roads can serve with reasonable transport volumes
� Only the largest transporters will benefit from a railway, the small and medium size enterprises can not use it- Everyone can use the roads
� Railway construction takes most of a decade or more- A road can be reconstructed within a year or two
� Railways maybe needed by regional mega-size projects- Roads are essential to all regional development
5