Planning for the renovation of the Suomenlinna tunnel begins

Today, the Governing Body of Suomenlinna signed a contract with YIT and Pöyry on renovating the tunnel of the World Heritage Site Suomenlinna. Together with the Governing Body of Suomenlinna, YIT and Pöyry will form an alliance which will be responsible for planning and implementing the project.

The budget for the project is EUR 7 million.

The project is to be carried out employing the alliance model, which means that the client, users, designers and contractors are involved from the very beginning. The parties to the project will be mutually responsible for the planning, construction and implementation, sharing the risks and benefits related to the project.

"It is challenging to implement this project with the alliance model, especially due to its small scale. So far, the model has been primarily applied to large and complex projects, but with Suomenlinna, we get to test what we have learned in a project of an entirely different size. In addition, the unique environment also poses challenges for the implementation of the project. We are very grateful for this opportunity of both implementing the Suomenlinna tunnel project and developing our project models," says Ari Bergström, Vice President of rock construction at YIT.

The currently starting development stage of the project is estimated to last until the end of 2016. The development stage will cover the planning of implementation details and exceptional arrangements required by the project. The renovation of the tunnel will begin in the spring of 2017.

The sea fortress Suomenlinna is connected to the municipal engineering of the city via a tunnel running under the sea. The residents of Suomenlinna receive their district heating, plumbing, water, electricity and data communication connections through the tunnel. The tunnel is also intended for the use of emergency vehicles. Suomenlinna is a district of Helsinki with about 800 year-round residents, 400–500 workers, depending on the season, and more than 930,000 visitors of the World Heritage Site per year. The tunnel renovation will ensure their continued access to municipal engineering services.

For further information, please contact:

Hanna Malmivaara, Vice President, Communications, YIT Corporation, tel. +358 (0)40 561 6568, hanna.malmivaara@yit.fi 

Ari Bergström, Vice President, YIT Construction Ltd, tel. +358 (0)40 830 7336, ari.bergstrom@yit.fi

YIT creates sustainable cities and better living environment by developing and constructing housing, business premises, infrastructure and entire areas. We focus on providing a first-class customer experience, high quality and continuous development of our diverse expertise. Our operating area covers Finland, Russia, the Baltic countries, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland. In 2015, our revenue amounted to nearly EUR 1.7 billion, and we employ about 5,300 employees. Our share is listed on Nasdaq Helsinki. www.yitgroup.com