The Infrastructure Management Division plays a key role in ensuring the best possible quality of traffic flow on the Finnish roads, railways and waterways. The job is by no means easy, since a lot of foresight and skill is required to prioritise the scarce resources. To fulfil her important task, Mirja Noukka, Director General of the division, relies on the expertise of her subordinates, the ELY Centres as well as on effective cooperation with entrepreneurs, planners and researchers producing new information.
When Mirja Noukka, Master of Science in Engineering, started her career as a young summer trainee at the Finnish Road Administration some twenty years ago, nobody had even heard of intelligent transport systems. A couple of years later, in her master’s thesis for her employer, she discussed this subject focusing on road transport telematics.
“Now we use the broader concept of digitalisation, which as a priority objective for the whole organisation, has a significant impact on the practices for infrastructure management,” she said.
In the last few years transport infrastructure management has annually been granted about one billion euros from the state budget. In addition to the average amount of 965 million euros, Noukka and her division are pleased to see that next year this amount will be increased by one hundred million euros. This addition is the result of a decision by Juha Sipilä’s government to stop the accumulation of the maintenance backlog by granting the Finnish Transport Agency 600 million euros in additional funding, 500 million euros of which will be budgeted for 2016 and 2017.
“When this additional funding is expended, it will be enough to stop the accumulation of the maintenance backlog, unless the funding again sinks to the former level within a few years,” said Noukka.
The railways and waterways also absorb resources
When appropriations for infrastructure management are publicly debated, road maintenance costs often dominate the discussion. Mirja Noukka points out that the funding for the maintenance of railways and waterways is taken from the same common budget.
“The total length of the railway lines is less than one tenth of that of the public roads. Since there is so much advanced technology on the railways, these require comparatively more funds. Electrical and safety devices at the end of their life cycle must be replaced in time. Furthermore, funds are required for railway yards, bridges, as well as for repairs of superstructures and frost damages.”
Up to now the share of railway maintenance and repairs has accounted for about 300 million euros of the budgetary sum of 965 million euros. The smallest amount of euros, in an absolute sense, is expended on waterways maintenance.
“Last year we spent about 23 million euros on waterways maintenance. The aids to navigation, the technology in and maintenance of the canals are the most important objects. The ageing constructions in the Saimaa Canal, especially the lock gates, must be renewed and repaired in the next few years, which requires a significant amount of funding,” said Mirja Noukka.
Still it is not, according to Noukka, expedient to channel all the infrastructure management funds into repairs only, even under austere conditions. It is also important to boost know-how through research and development work. This is the reason why the Finnish Transport Agency funds the TERA2 research programme on track technology led by the university Tampereen teknillinen yliopisto. Work is also done to improve the maintenance of paved roads; for example in the PYKE project and PEHKO research programme, where pilot studies are underway in the areas covered by the ELY Centres in Lapland and Central Finland.
“Fortunately, the funding for the maintenance backlog will facilitate the annual infrastructure management in the near future. The necessity of these research projects is not at all diminished by the additional funding,” Noukka pointed out.
According to her, many small but important objects, especially from the customers’ point of view, such as the improvement of intersections and building of pedestrian and cycle lanes, still remain unfunded.
“In addition to the condition of the transport infrastructure, I would like to bring up other priority areas such as drafting of technical guidelines as well as traffic safety and health and occupational safety. Clear guidelines and quality requirements ensure a sensible level of quality.”
Author: Vesa Tompuri
(Source: Finnish Transport Agency)
