While it is rare for a street work site altering the urban environment to be completely nuisance-free, the history of the Roadwork Site of the Year competition has seen many creative solutions that have significantly reduced the harm. The competition was launched five years ago as part of the City of Helsinki's Roadworks development project, and it has been developed to its current form year after year. This year, the concept of this competition was also introduced in Espoo.
The winner and the nominees for honorary mentions of the competition will be selected by a jury of experts who will tour the sites during the summer. This year, the jury includes INFRA, Finnish Property Owners Rakli, the Finnish Association of People with Physical Disabilities, the Finnish Federation of the Visually Impaired, the Helsinki Region Chamber of Commerce, Helsinki Region Transport (HSL), Pyöräliitto Cyclists’ Federation, Helsinki Region Environmental Services (HSY) and the client of the competition, the City of Helsinki. The work of the jury is coordinated by Ramboll Finland.
The site's genuine desire to make a difference has been one of the deciding factors of succeeding in the competition. At its best, reducing nuisances has become a shared vision for the whole site, which is reflected in the site's day-to-day operations and culture, as well as in its communication to city residents.
“Even when the site has caused significant changes to people's everyday environment, they have been able to provide a positive experience to the city residents. Changes to familiar routes, noise, dust and other temporary inconveniences are easier to tolerate when you know the cause for them and how long they will last, know how to give feedback and can be sure that it will be responded to," says Mikko Suikki, a project director at the City of Helsinki.
A construction site that physically disrupts the street space can also bring joy to the city residents. During the competition, construction sites have proven their innovative approaches, e.g. by providing a temporary space for art pieces on their worksite fences or by showcasing construction work to people through peepholes integrated into the site fences. Temporary routes and structures have been designed and implemented to meet the needs of different road users, and efforts have been made to support the operating conditions for local businesses, e.g. by increasing the visibility of commercial premises.
This year, the competition concept has been developed even further by adding the Kirittäjät series (‘Sprinters’). It aims to encourage sites to raise their standards, especially among those sites that have taken good care of many things, but where there is also clear room for improvement in some areas. Based on the feedback from the jury, the sites will be able to improve their performance over the summer and then compete for the win with the competition’s other highest ranked sites.
The Roadwork Site of the Year 2025 competition started in June, and the winner will be announced in October at the Maarakennuspäivät civil engineering fair at Finlandia Hall. Last year, the Hakaniemi sub-project of the Crown Bridges was awarded as Helsinki's Roadwork Site of the Year 2024.
