Initial situation and the plan

Upgrading highway 4 between Kello-Räinänperä was one of the first so called Plan and Implement projects (STk-urakka) in Finland. A Plan and Implement project consists of the development stage and the optional implementation stage. In the development stage, the project owner and the contractor develop new solutions for implementing a construction work. The life span of the structures and the risks of the project are taken into consideration during planning. At the end of the development stage, the contractor delivers the preliminary construction plan to the project owner. When constructing, an exact construction plan is always carried out as the work progresses.

The work to upgrade highway 4 starts at the ending point of the highway in the intersection bridge in Korvala and ends in the municipality of Ii 500 meters north from the motorway 847 intersection in Haukiputaantie. In the project, 18 km of highway 4 is upgraded.

The plan includes:

• 7.7 km of highway 4 is upgraded to motorway
• 9.5 km of highway 4 is upgraded to have a passing lane
• 9 ramp improvements
• ca 2 km private road arrangements
• 3 new highway bridges and 5 improvements of existing bridges
• 1.2 km new noise barrier
• ca 9.2 km median barrier

Use of Infrakit in the project

Destia, who is the contractor in the project, utilized Infrakit in the project. Olli Planting, the development manager of Destia, explains why they decided to use Infrakit and what were the benefits of the decision.

‘Using Infrakit in projects was already an established practice in our company and we knew the benefits brought by the service as well as the application areas. The most essential benefits of Infrakit are gained in work machine automation and monitoring project progress. This project doesn’t differ greatly from earlier ones, and we have done everything the way we always do. The introduction of Infrakit was a natural solution because I had used Infrakit already in the road design phase before the STk contract. ’

Would you recommend Infrakit for others with similar projects?

‘Sure. The pros of Infrakit become clear when it is used throughout the span of the project starting from planning all the way to execution. I believe Infrakit could be used to aid maintenance as well, and its benefits at that stage of projects could be investigated further’, Olli Planting concludes.