Highways in Finland

Highways in Finland, or Main roads, comprise the highest categories of roads in Finland:

  • Main roads Class I – Finnish: valtatiet; Swedish: riksvägar – numbered 1–39, between major cities
  • Main roads Class II – Finnish: kantatiet; Swedish: stamvägar – numbered 40–99, between regional centers
Map of highways in Finland. Class I in red, Class II in yellow.

Overview

Highways numbered from 1 to 7 radiate from the capital Helsinki (Highways 2, 5 and 6 diverge from 1, 4 and 7, respectively), while highways 8 to 10 radiate from Turku on the south-western coast of Finland. Highways 11 and 12 originate in Tampere. The rest of the highways start from other major cities.

Sections of highways between major cities have often been upgraded to motorways, for example between Helsinki and Tampere. Since Finland is a large and sparsely populated country, there is no reason to upgrade all highways to motorways.

The motorway network totals 926 kilometres (575 mi). In addition to that, there are 124 kilometres (77 mi) of motortrafficways, which are reserved only for motor traffic.[1]

List of current highways

Map of Finnish motorways
Valtatie 1 near Halikko
Helsinki − Turku
Vihti (1 km)
VantaaTampere - Ylöjärvi
Helsingby (Korsholm) − Vaasa
HelsinkiHeinola
VaajakoskiJyväskylä − Kirri
LiminkaOuluHaukipudas
Marostenmäki (Simo) − KemiKeminmaa (20,9 km)
Lusi, Heinola (3 km)
Vehmasmäki − Kuopio
Kuopio − Siilinjärvi
Mansikkala − Kaukopää (Imatra)
Reijola − Käpykangas (Joensuu) (10,8 km)
HelsinkiKotkaVaalimaa[2]
TurkuNousiainen
KorsholmVaasa (shared with valtatie 3)
TurkuLieto
ViialaTampere
Kuopio − Siilinjärvi (part of Valtatie 5)
Ylämylly (Liperi) − Reijola (Joensuu) (21 km)
TampereNokia
Lohjanharju − Lohja (part of Valtatie 1)
TornioKeminmaa (World's northernmost motorway)

Former highway alignments

The former routes of the following highways differ significantly from the current ones, or have been completely abolished.

Rings

Ring I (Kehä I) in Pukinmäki, a northern district of Helsinki

See also

References

  1. Finnish Road Statistics 2010. Statistics from the Finnish Transport Agency 6/2011 (ISSN-L 1798-811X). Helsinki: Finnish Transport Agency (FTA). 2011. pp. 23, 49. ISBN 978-952-255-699-8. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 October 2015. Retrieved 7 August 2011.
  2. "Suomen pisin moottoritie on vihdoin valmis – rakentaminen kesti 62 vuotta".
  3. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2011-07-20. Retrieved 2012-05-02.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
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