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

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION!

jorma.leskinen@ely-keskus.fi

3.11.20146

Jorma Leskinen