A street or park area can be reserved as a temporary worksite for purposes such as construction, moving or filming work. If you wish to carry out excavation work on a street or in a park, you must notify the City.
Submit a notification of excavation or other work in good time before the planned start of the work. We process notifications within an average of seven days and a maximum of 21 days. You may not start any work until the City has issued its decision. The notification must be accompanied by a plan for temporary traffic arrangements if the work will affect traffic or parking.
The party responsible for the work is the party whose structure is being built, maintained or repaired - usually the client of the work. The party in charge of the work and the party carrying out the work are jointly responsible for safety on the worksite. At least one person with a valid qualification obtained in national street work training must be present at a work site located in a public area.
Submit a notification of excavation work
If you wish to carry out excavation work on a street or in a park, provide the City with a detailed description of the work via the Haitaton service. The average processing time for notifications is seven days.
If necessary, you can also apply for a cable report when submitting your excavation notification.
The use of an area is subject to a fee.
Use the online service
Fill in a form
Draw up a power of attorney
If you are not the party responsible for the work, attach a power of attorney to the notification.
Submit a notification of other work in a street or park area
You can reserve a section of a street or park as a temporary work area for purposes such as construction or lifting work, property renovation, moving, snow removal from roofs, and film or television productions. In this case, you can place equipment such as a facade scaffold, a hoist, a skip or a container in the area.
Submit a notification via our online service and, if necessary, attach a plan for temporary traffic arrangements.
Reserving an area is subject to a fee.
Processing time
The average processing time is seven days.
Use the online service
Submit a notification of reserving a street or park as a work area
Fill in a form
Draw up a power of attorney
If you are not the party responsible for the work, attach a power of attorney to the notification.
How to submit a notification of excavation work
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Create a project in the Haitaton service
Go to the Haitaton service and create a project.
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Draw up a nuisance management plan
You plan must always draw up a nuisance management plan for your project so that any nuisances caused by roadworks can be anticipated. The plan is drawn up in Haitaton as part of the project.
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Order up-to-date cable information and submit an excavation notification via the Haitaton service
Order a cable report before any excavation, drilling or quarrying works. You can also order a cable report when submitting an excavation notification via the Haitaton system.
Order a cable report and read more on the ‘Cable information’ page
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Attach a plan for traffic arrangements to your notification
We provide more detailed information on this page in the ‘How to plan traffic arrangements’ section.
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You will receive an excavation work decision via Haitaton
As part of the decision, we will provide instructions and provisions for carrying out the work, as well as an estimate of the fees to be charged. You will also be notified if we require further information or if quality assurance tests need to be carried out regarding the excavation work. Submit the quality assurance test record via the Haitaton service.
If the specified requirements are not met, the party responsible for the work will be charged for the costs of the quality assurance tests.
Read the instructions on carrying out quality assurance tests (PDF, in Finnish)
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Notify us of any changes to the details in the original notification
Remember to notify us via the Haitaton service in good time if there are any changes to the duration of the work, the extent of the work area or the planned traffic arrangements.
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If necessary, report on the condition of the area during the winter season (1 December – 14 May)
If the excavation work area is in normal use during the winter season (1 December – 14 May), you can report that the status of the work is functional via Haitaton. In that case, we will suspend the site usage fee for the winter.
To ensure a functional status, take care of the following for the winter:
- Temporarily pave the driveway, cycling route and pavement with asphalt up to the surface.
- Rock dust or fine crushed aggregate can be used on pavements and other areas as long as this is agreed upon in advance with an inspector.
- Remove all traffic control devices from the site.
If no temporary paving has been carried out and no report on the functional status has been submitted, we will continue to charge you for the use of the area. We will only suspend the charging once the necessary measures have been taken.
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Notify us when the excavation work is complete
Report that your excavation work has been completed via Haitaton. We will then inspect the area and cease charging you for it.
The work is considered to be complete once the asphalt surfaces have been laid, seams in the asphalt have been treated with sealant, the green areas have been restored and the entire excavation area has been returned to its original state. Any temporary traffic control devices must also be removed from the area. We will provide more detailed instructions on the restoration of the area in the decision.
How to submit a notification of other work
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Create a notification in the online service
Draw up your notification in the online service for public areas.
Go to the online service for public areas (in Finnish)(Link leads to external service)
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Attach a plan for traffic arrangements to your notification
We provide more detailed information on this page in the ‘How to plan traffic arrangements’ section.
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You will receive a decision by email
As part of the decision, we will provide instructions and provisions for carrying out the work, as well as an estimate of the fees to be charged.
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Notify us of any changes to the details in the original notification
Remember to notify us via the online service in good time if there are any changes to the duration of the work, the extent of the work area or the planned traffic arrangements.
Report any changes via the online service for public areas(Link leads to external service)
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Notify us when the work is complete
Notify us via the online service when the work is complete, the areas have been cleaned and any temporary traffic control devices have been removed from the area.
How to plan traffic arrangements
On the base map, draw up a plan for temporary traffic arrangements if your work will affect pedestrian, cycling or vehicle traffic. You must also draw up a plan when reserving parking spaces for other use by means of a vehicle removal request sign.
The plan must always be up to date. Update the plan if traffic arrangements need to be changed as the work progresses.
Make a temporary traffic arrangements plan if the work will affect the arrangements for pedestrian, bicycle or motor vehicle traffic, or if you reserve parking spaces for other use with street signs urging vehicle owners to move their parked vehicles.
The plan must always be up to date. Update the plan if traffic arrangements need to be changed as the work progresses.
Draw the plan on a base map. Include these points in the plan:
- the temporary routes for different modes of traffic
- temporary traffic signs and traffic control devices
- possible driving speed reductions
- a description of the site’s impact on public transport and changes to public transport stops
- the impacts of the arrangements on taxi ranks and charging points
- the locations and areas of effect of street signs urging vehicle owners to move their parked vehicles
- other changes that have an impact on permanent traffic arrangements
- protection and fencing of the work site
- impact on the arrangements of other work sites.
Checklist for temporary traffic arrangements (PDF, in Finnish)
Instructions and standard solution images for temporary traffic arrangements (PDF, in Finnish)
- Excavation works and temporary traffic arrangements in the Helsinki metropolitan area (PDF, in Finnish)
- Bicycle traffic planning instructions for work sites and events (PDF, in Finnish)
- Use of signs urging vehicle owners to move their parked vehicles due to work or an event in a street area (PDF, in Finnish)
- Read the guidelines for implementing accessibility on the Helsinki for all pages (external link)(Link leads to external service)
Instructions on different types of work:
- Temporary traffic arrangements related to lifting work (PDF, in Finnish)
- Temporary traffic arrangements related to building construction (PDF, in Finnish)
- Temporary traffic arrangements related to film and TV productions (PDF, in Finnish)
- Temporary traffic arrangements related to snow removal from roofs (PDF, in Finnish)
If the work will affect public transport:
- Submit a notification of the upcoming work in good time to infra@hsl.fi(Link opens default mail program).
- Attach a traffic plan.
- HSL’s instructions for submitting a work notification (in Finnish)(Link leads to external service)
If you will be working near a metro or tram line:
- Contact Metropolitan Area Transport Ltd.
- Metropolitan Area Transport’s instructions for work notifications and procedures (in Finnish)(Link leads to external service)
If your work will require blocking off any streets:
- Contact the Rescue Department:
tilannekeskus@hel.fi(Link opens default mail program), tel. +358 9 310 30150(Link starts a phone call)
If the work will affect the operation of traffic lights:
- Contact the Helsinki Metropolitan Area Traffic Control Centre:
liikenteenhallintakeskus@hel.fi(Link opens default mail program), tel. +358 9 310 37555(Link starts a phone call)
Instructions for using Haitaton
The user manual for the Haitaton system provides instructions on functions such as setting up a project, updating it and submitting a notification, i.e. an application.
Read the manual in the Haitaton service(Link leads to external service)
We have also produced short instructional videos on key functions in Haitaton.
Price list
The rent of a public area depends on the size and location of the area and the duration of the work.
Read about the fees for work carried out on streets and in public areas (PDF, in Finnish)
Contact information
If you need more information or encounter a problem, please contact us by sending an email to luvat@hel.fi(Link opens default mail program) or by calling our customer service number, tel. +358 9 310 22111(Link starts a phone call).
You can also contact the inspector responsible for the area.