No Extra Cash for Bridge Repairs
The Myllysilta Bridge in Turku came close to collapse last weekend.
Image: YLE
No extra funds for highway bridge maintenance are expected in the near future. Hundreds of bridges across Finland are, however, in a poor state of repair. Cash for repairs has had to be taken from funding for other road maintenance projects.
The near collapse of a road bridge in the city of Turku last weekend focused attention on the state of the country’s highway bridges.
Many bridges constructed in the sixties and seventies are in need of basic repair.
Estimates put the total number of highway and rail bridges requiring repair at around 900, of which around 200 are in an acute need of attention.
According to Jukka Hirvela, Director General of the Finnish Transport Agency, funds for bridge repairs have had to come from cash allocated for new cycle tracks and road asphalt work.
“If repairs are not carried out, we may, at some stage, be forced to implement speed limits on some bridges,” he says.
The Finnish Transport Agency estimates at least 80 million euros annually is needed over the next decade to properly maintain the country’s network of bridges.
Secretary of State, Harri Pursiainen, at the Ministry of Communications says no extra funds are forthcoming. But, he assures, no bridge in Finland is in a dangerous condition.
YLE