Street maintenance

During summer, street structures and surfacing must be kept in a satisfactory condition as required by the traffic needs. The Act on the maintenance, cleaning and clearing of public areas divides the responsibilities of maintaining and cleaning public streets and other public areas between the municipality and plot owner.    

• The cleaning of a street in public use from the plot boundary to the centre line of the street, however, at maximum to a distance of 15 m. Cleaning comprises the removal of any dirt, leaves, litter and loose items gathered on the street area.
• Maintaining ditches and unbuilt green strips bordering the plot and located within three (3) metres of its boundary.
• If the green strip is wider than 3 meters, the street area must be kept clean up to a distance of 24 m from the plot boundary. In this case, the plot owner’s duties do not include the maintenance of the green strip.

• The plot owner is responsible for the maintenance of the access road (plot access).
•  Any damage to surfacing, pits and other such defects endangering traffic in the street area that is to be maintained by the plot owner, must be reported without delay to the customer service(extrernal link) or police.

• The city is responsible for the maintenance of street structures, replacing worn surfacing and repairing damage.
• The city carries out the necessary ditching and culverting to ensure drainage.
• The city ensures the surface levelling and dust suppression of gravel roads and the maintenance of plants, street furniture, traffic islands, safety rails, traffic signs and road markings and other similar equipment in the street area.
• The city ensures the maintenance of plants, street furniture, traffic islands, safety rails, traffic signs and road markings and other similar equipment that it has placed in the street area.

Winter maintenance belongs in part to the city and in part to the owners of properties along the street.

• to ensure the removal of the bank of snow formed at the plot access
• to ensure the maintenance of the access road to the plot
• to ensure the cleaning of the ditch and rainwater gutters
• to remove hazardous snow from the property’s equipment (for example a letterbox or fence)
• to ensure cleaning of the street (litter) up to the middle line of the street.

Property owners are not allowed move snow from their plot onto the city’s street or park areas. There must be a dedicated place for snow on their own plot. If necessary, snow must be transported to a snow disposal site. The same duties apply to the leaseholder of a plot.

• The city ensures snow removal and the prevention of slipperiness on public roads and pavements. Gritting is the primary method of preventing slipperiness.

Streets have been divided into three and pavements and bicycle lanes into two maintenance classes based on their traffic significance. Streets are maintained in an order of priority determined by their maintenance classification.

The street maintenance classification is displayed on the map(extrernal link).

Private roads are maintained by private property owners and other members of the road maintenance association. Private roads are regulated by the Private Roads Act 560/2018.

Private road construction proceedings are ensured by the National Land Survey of Finland and in detail plan areas accordant with the binding plot subdivision by the City of Espoo. 

Members of a road maintenance association are responsible for the maintenance of their private roads. The City of Espoo includes private roads within the detailed plan area in its maintenance activities, if they meet the conditions for inclusion.

The City of Espoo grants allowances for the maintenance of private roads. In order for a private road to be eligible for the allowance, it must be an access road to at least two permanently occupied properties and it must allow access to external traffic. The property driveway, roads situated inside the plot, farm roads and roads leading only to recreational dwellings are not eligible for allowance. 

Applications for private road maintenance allowances are processed once a year.
Tiekunta-avustushakemus 2021 (in Finnish) with the required attachments must be submitted by the end of February to the Registry Office of the City of Espoo either by post or e-mail.

In order to be eligible for the allowance, a road maintenance association must be established to take care of matters related to the road and to ensure that data pertaining to the association and private road are up to date, both in the private road register and in the road and street network information system.

An allowance for fundamental improvement of private roads may be applied for from the ELY Centre(extrernal link).

City of Espoo
Registry Office
P.O. Box 1
FI-02070 City of Espoo

Street address:
Siltakatu 11 (Entresse Shopping Centre)
02770 ESPOO

kirjaamo@espoo.fi

Smooth traffic and safety are key objectives on the city’s roads. Traffic is controlled by traffic signs, road markings and traffic lights, for example. Each site is planned separately, and the best solution is determined for that particular location.

The busiest and most challenging intersections in terms of traffic safety get traffic lights or a roundabout.  The results of the road safety survey are considered in the planning.

The city is responsible for the lighting of streets and other public areas. The ELY Centre is responsible for the lighting of the ring roads and Länsiväylä.

Street lighting is controlled by time

Street lighting is controlled by an astronomical clock. The lights turn off in the morning 10 minutes before sunrise and back on in the evening 20 minutes after sunset.

Energy-saving LED lights have been installed in place of old street lights in many new and renovated sites around the city.

Lighting is turned on during scheduled service

Lighting repairs are carried out by region three times a year. The service cycles follow each other back-to-back. Street lighting is lit during service cycles and repairs to locate burnt out lamps and faults, so the lamps may be illuminated during the day in the area to be repaired.

Temporary traffic arrangements refer to a situation where a street or section thereof must be closed for construction work or moving of machinery. Arrangements resulting from construction work may require partial closure of the street, setting a temporary speed limit or arranging for parking for the workers’ vehicles. Sufficient visibility before any pedestrian crossing must be ensured.

Arrangements caused by construction work require a permit

A permit must be applied for any construction work taking place on the street or in its vicinity.  The permit is fixed-term and subject to a fee.  Apply for a temporary traffic arrangement permit via eLupapalvelun (external link)(extrernal link). With a letter of authorisation, the permit may be applied on behalf

In certain cases, the City of Espoo will pay for vehicle damages or injuries caused by the poor condition of traffic routes, falling roadside or park trees or traffic signs, or slipping or falling on traffic routes maintained by the city.

Taking snow to any other areas owned by the city is forbidden.

Snow disposal is allowed at the site in accordance with the terms of use and instructions of the site manager. Bringing construction or any other type of waste to the snow disposal site is strictly forbidden. If the site gate is closed, snow disposal is not allowed in the area or next to it.