Street maintenance, situation on 20 November 2024

During Wednesday, precipitation will likely turn into rain, further impacting road conditions. Starting Thursday night, temperatures will fall below zero, making road conditions predominantly icy for the rest of the week.

Proximity to the coast also affects road conditions. All road users should be aware of the sometimes significant differences in road conditions between southern and northern Espoo. Based on the situation on Wednesday morning, our primary maintenance task will be removing slush from roads and pedestrian and bicycle paths. In areas around junctions and ramps of state-maintained roads (e.g. Ring I and II), drivers should prepare for larger amounts of slush compared to the surrounding street network, as vehicle tyres carry salt from the state roads, leading to slushy conditions in these areas. We will grit pedestrian and bicycle paths to reduce slipperiness.

Strong winds may further affect road conditions. As the ground is not yet frozen, trees may be more prone to falling due to the wind. The unfrozen ground also impacts street maintenance, as kerb stones and roadside lawns are not as resilient to maintenance equipment as when the ground is frozen. Any damage caused by snow ploughing will be repaired in the spring.

The mild late autumn has provided favourable conditions for roadwork sites and cable-laying projects. There are still unfinished sites across Espoo. We have been communicating with construction companies, and on narrowed, fenced-off routes, the responsibility for winter maintenance is often transferred to the contractors. During these first snowfalls, conditions around some roadwork sites may temporarily be worse than those on normal streets.

Our customer service works closely with maintenance staff and informs them about the feedback received.

We ask you to send your feedback directly through the city’s online feedback system(external link, opens in a new window). Both our feedback and telephone services are quite busy from time to time, and waiting times may be long.

If you can, also send us a photo of the site in question. Based on the photo, we will be able to assess the urgency of the situation, which will accelerate the processing of your feedback.

You can also give location-based feedback through the Trimble Feedback mobile application(external link, opens in a new window). It is a quick way to send a message to customer service, for example concerning a need for maintenance. We go through all mobile feedback and forward it to experts who will take the necessary measures.