“The Crown Bridges worksite assumes an ambitious attitude in everything they do – things are taken care of well at this demanding and traffic-wise challenging worksite. Pedestrians and cyclists have been taken into account through good signage leading towards different districts and places. The operators’ desire to improve their efforts every year is now rewarded with first place in the competition,” says Technical Director Kari Pudas from the City of Helsinki’s Urban Environment Division in congratulation.
Additionally, the Hakaniemi sub-project of Crown Bridges was commended for its success in the winter maintenance of traffic arrangements, as well as its insightful communications and the merits thereof.
”We are extremely proud of the win in the Roadwork Site of the Year competition. It's great that our genuine desire to act for the good of the residents and to constantly improve the operation of our site is visible to everyone, and to get praised for the Alliance in the form of this win. Hakaniemi is a very challenging place for a construction site but with our good and solution orientated attitude, we have conquered it. Thank you on behalf of the whole of Kruunusillat Alliance for this honour and thank you to everyone at the Hakaniemi site for the great work!”, says Crown Bridges’ Project Director Laura Saarlo.
The contractors hired for the Crown Bridges project are YIT Suomi Oy and NRC Group Finland Oy, with the City of Helsinki as the client.
Honourable mentions were given to the Mannerheimintie roadworks and the Kalasatama–Pasila project, which involves building a tramway and streets along Hermannin rantatie between Vanha Talvitie and Haukilahdenkatu.
The Mannerheimintie roadworks project was commended for its well-executed and predictive communications – the use of a worksite committee was given a special mention. The objective of the committee, which consists of residents, is to have discussions to collect a wide range of knowledge regarding the impacts of the worksite on different residents and together develop solutions for smoother everyday life.
Among other things, the Kalasatama–Pasila project was commended by the committee for taking children into consideration in terms of safety and comfort alike, both of which have been improved through extensive traffic control measures and improving the safety of pedestrian crossings.
The awards were handed out at Helsinki City Hall on 3 October. The jury consisted of representatives of Infra ry, Rakli, the Finnish Association of People with Physical Disabilities, the Finnish Federation of the Visually Impaired, Helsinki Region Chamber of Commerce, HSL, HSY and the City of Helsinki. The competition was coordinated by Ramboll.
Worksites were sparred during the competition
This was the third time that the City of Helsinki held the ‘Roadwork Site of the Year’ competition. The objective of the competition is for operators to come together to develop and share good worksite practices thanks to which worksite arrangements, the signage and temporary passageways appear successful and functional to street users.
After a prequalification process carried out by quality controllers, nine worksites were selected for the competition. This year, the main focus of the competition was on infrastructure projects, which have major impacts in Helsinki – due to their scale and significance alike. Additionally, Helsinki residents were given an opportunity to propose worksites for the competition, most of which then ended up being evaluated by the jury.
The jury visited all nine worksites to observe aspects such as temporary traffic arrangements, demarcation, accessibility, tidiness, safety, communications and the general impression. The jury pointed out areas in need of development at the worksites, which were then monitored during the competition.