This situational picture provides information about the masses and dimensions of heavy-duty transport, the target network for abnormal transport, and heavy-duty transport rest areas and their services in Finland. The situational picture of special issues in heavy-duty transport is primarily updated twice a year. The information is produced by the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency. The information is part of the strategic situational picture of the Finnish transport network.
Heavy-duty transport masses and dimensions
The following changes have been made to the maximum allowed dimensions and masses of vehicles and vehicle combinations in recent years: In 2013, the maximum mass of a vehicle combination increased from 60 tonnes to 76 tonnes and the height increased from 4.2 metres to 4.4 metres. In 2019, the maximum length of a vehicle combination increased from 25.25 metres to 34.5 metres and the maximum length of a tractor trailer increased from 16.5 metres to 22.5 metres.
The statutory maximum masses and dimensions are employed throughout the road network, including municipalities and private roads, if not restricted separately. There are approximately 390 bridges (3%) with a capacity restriction in the public road network, which are all located outside the arterial road network. There are roughly 50 junctions that hinder the operation of long vehicle combinations in practice in the state-owned road network.
The increases to the dimensions and masses has achieved savings of approximately 5–20% depending on the branch of transport.
HCT transports, with lengths and masses exceeding the allowances, have been experimented with since 2013 upon special permission. Increasing dimensions has clear benefits especially in sea container transport, forestry transport, general cargo transport and food transport. The increasing prevalence of transports whose dimensions exceed earlier dimensions will cause some needs for changes in the traffic network. Increasing the dimensions of heavy-duty transports will require intersections to be expanded, for example.
Further increasing masses to 84/90 tonnes in a restricted road network was planned in 2016–2018, but there have been no active developments since. Many companies have emphasised the significance of the need for a restricted HCT mass network for cost efficiency and emission reduction.
Road network for large special transport
Special transports are transports whose dimensions and/or masses exceed normal transport. In 2013, the Finnish Transport Agency issued a decision on the target road network for large abnormal transports (SEKV), which will enable transports of 7x7x40 metres in size (height x width x length) upon completion. The connection-level decision contains 7,130 km of actual SEKV and an additional 1,740 km of SEKV routes with railings. ELY Centres have since clarified the network in their own areas. A report ensuring the uniformity of the national network is scheduled for completion in 2022.
In the national target road network, projects are planned and implemented based on the dimensioning principle of 7x7x40 metres. This is supplemented with special transport routes based on local needs with smaller or larger dimensions. The division of costs for the supplementary routes will be agreed upon locally. The plans must pay special attention to the streamlining of special transport routes sufficiently early on in the process, when urban or municipal land use and traffic solutions are planned.
Transports connected to the construction of wind power plants often exceed the SEKV dimensions. Intersections need to be expanded and lighting needs to be dismantled to accommodate them. If these transports are frequent, the structures will not be rebuilt, which may cause safety risks and inconvenience to other road users and road maintenance.
Heavy-duty transport rest areas and their services
Heavy-duty transport rest areas are needed for the statutory breaks of the drivers. Their demand is highest near large cities, ports and terminals and in the nodes of several main roads and in overlapping rest zones. In addition to the Helsinki region, rest zones near Turku, Jyväskylä, Äänekoski and Kuopio have the highest demand and lack the most rest areas with the minimum level of service.
According to customer satisfaction surveys, more than a third of heavy-duty transport drivers were unhappy with their options for resting – the drivers that drive the most were the most dissatisfied. When there are few rest areas and their parking capacity is small, drivers of large vehicles have challenges with taking their statutory breaks at a suitable time, if there is no room at their planned rest stop.
Most of the rest areas are market-based service stations. They are supplemented by nine service areas along the main routes in Finland, which are leased to service stations. The state is only able to determine the minimum service level of the latter. Often, the costs of offering services to heavy-duty transport exceed the income for service station managers, especially in the early morning hours.
The EU Commission has been preparing a new regulation that would determine the requirements for safe truck stops. Some of the requirements concern the minimum service level offered to the drivers, and others concern the security in the area. The regulation proposal will likely be submitted in December 2021 in connection with the TEN-T regulation. A requirement to provide safe truck stops every 100 km has been drafted for the TEN-T road network. At present, Finland does not have any certified safe truck stops.
On 7 December 2021, the Helsinki Metropolitan Area organised a call for tenders concerning an overall service concept for an overnight truck stop in the vicinity of the Kehä III ring road. The Helsinki metropolitan region is also planning on establishing two new heavy-duty transport parking areas near main roads 3 and 4. New rest areas are also in high demand in the Turku and Jyväskylä regions.
According to the Transport 12 plan, the objective is to draft a plan for developing a national rest stop and transfer station network in 2022.