We interviewed a worker named Hannu Nurmi from traffic office about the expansion of Pekkala's bridge.
1. Is it necessary to build here a bridge extension? Why?
... Traffic performance is bad so there is congestion, especially in the morning and evening, and there is lot of accidents too. Bridge extension on a main roadway is really important.
2. When it was decided to build?
Actually, we have prepared for the bridge extension already in the 70s, when we planned the ring road’s bridge. - - After the road plan was decided in the end of the 2009, the government adopted a financing decision, when they finally decided to built the extension.
3. Who decided about building?
The Finnish government and parliament.
4. How much expansion is expected to increase traffic?
It doesn’t really increase traffic, but when the ring road’s traffic will decrease and the ramps will work, traffic moves from the street network to the ring road so the ring road traffic increases. It also calms down a part of the street network. It’s expected that at the end of this decade about 30 000 cars pass daily the ring road.
5. How long the construction will last?
The contract says that the ring road will be completed in the autumn of next year, so it will be completely finished in the end of the next year.
6. Is it possible that the construction will be delayed?
Not really, the project has gone quite as planned and on schedule, so it’s expected to be finished on the next year’s fall.
7. How much the project will cost?
The state has invested 35 million and the city has invested about 4.5 million and it seems that the project will cost roughly as much as it has been invested. Of course we can’t predict exactly how much it will cost because there surely will appear additional works during the project. The contract is tied to a risk index layer, the bridge index, and the bitumen index. Nobody can predict, for example, how much the bitumen will cost next year when we are making coatings but at the moment it seems that if the index would develop steadily the money would be enough.
8. Who are financed by the project?
The State of Finland and the city of Joensuu.
9. How big is this project in the Finland’s scale?
It’s a big project because Transport Agency’s building department, where I currently operate, is leading this project. Finland has 10 to 20 similar projects and compared to them, this is a small project. There has been invested 20-600 million to the other projects.
10. What’s the meaning of Transport Agency in this project?
Transport Agency or state has invested 35 million and the city of Joensuu has invested 4.5 million. City's contribution includes for example Karsikko’s roundabout because it needs improvement.
11. How the environment has been noticed?
The environment is noticed all the time in the general and road designing and although the noise walls have been made, we still had to add quite a lot more of them in the focusing project. Then of course we have planted trees and added price structures, for example granite and needlestone which are needed in the Käpykangas’s bridge. Also, the contract documents include an order which says that we can’t build on spring because one of frog species has spawning season in Varaslampi.
12. Is there something that has been demolished from extension’s way?
One building has been demolished near Repokallio and some bridges including Nurmeksentie’s Road Bridge is demolished and Repokallio’s crossing bridge will be demolished because the ramp structures wouldn’t fit in there. But only one building has been demolished from the new building’s way. However, it was owned by the city and it would have been demolished anyway.
13. Have people complained?
Not really. During the construction a few subcontractors demolished the old bridge at night and it caused a little complaining. But otherwise there have been very little complaining because there is no settlement near the road.
14. How long is the bridge expected to last until the next maintenance?
Bridges are dimensioned so that they would last about a hundred years. The old bridge of Pekkala had its first little maintenance ten years ago, about 20 years after completion. The new bridge’s first maintenance may appear about 20-30 years after completion.
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Toimittaja(t): Päätoimittaja
Luotu: 26.5.2011 13:46
Muokattu: 26.5.2011 13:47