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The new lorry parking area and heavy traffic routes will be introduced in Vaalimaa, Finland, on January 4th, 2017 at 12:00

The new road system is set to streamline the traffic at the border between Finland and Russia.

A new lorry park, which is to be the waiting area for heavy traffic and the associated routes are to be opened for traffic on  January 4th 2017 at 12:00 in Vaalimaa (Torfjanovka on the Russian side of the border). Vaalimaa is the busiest border crossing point between Finland and Russia. The new road system will streamline the traffic at the border crossing, improve traffic safety, and cut down harmful effects that the heavy traffic has on the environment. The new lorry parking area is part of the E18 Hamina–Vaalimaa motorway project.

The new lorry parking area offers 410 parking spaces when entering Russia and 51 when entering Finland. The area includes toilet and shower facilities for the drivers. The use of the lorry parking area is free of charge. The current lorry parking space capacity is 160 and 51 of these will be allotted for lorry traffic from Russia into Finland. The remaining spaces of the parking area are reserved for passenger traffic travelling to Russia.

The queues by lorries waiting to cross the border have been extremely long in the recent years, up to 65 km from the border at worst. This has caused traffic congestion and dangerous situations. After the introduction of the new lorry parking area, the lorries are able to wait on the new parking area instead of forming queues along the road.

 – The project is part of a long-term plan in which the Finnish Transport Agency prepares for the upturn in the economy and the resulting growth in the number of border crossings. Even though the cross-border traffic is not currently as busy as in the past, the lorry traffic is expected to grow in the future, explains Project Director Lars Westermark from the Transport Agency.

– Since the heavy traffic will use routes dedicated for them, without having to share the passenger routes and areas, the safety and traffic in Vaalimaa will improve significantly, says Antti Sassali, the head of Customs at Vaalimaa.

First motorway section will be opened in February

The first section of the E18 Hamina–Vaalimaa motorway will be opened for traffic in February of 2017. The section is a roughly 5-km-long stretch from Lelu to Kattilainen in the Hamina area. The motorway works are proceeding to schedule and the entire motorway is expected to be ready in the spring of 2018. The motorway construction sites currently employ some 520 workers and the planning team of the project consists of roughly 100 planners.