Truck traffic is rolling on the roads with twice the load as in the 1960s, and climate change is making winter weather increasingly wet and unpredictable. How do winter roads stay in shape as conditions change?
The winter road maintenance categories and the quality requirements defined for each of them outline how roads are maintained in winter.
In Finland, almost 70 percent of traffic is driven in the two highest maintenance classes. The contractors responsible for their winter maintenance have strict requirements regarding, for example, proactive slip prevention and road surface condition.
On rural and quieter roads, where traffic typically ranges from a few dozen to a few hundred vehicles per day, the requirements are more relaxed and response times are longer. The road surface is not always completely grippy, and for example, asphalt is allowed. On low-traffic roads, preventing slippage is also more challenging, as the traffic itself helps to reduce slippage.
"The quality of road maintenance is particularly important for heavy traffic, which uses roads of various levels around Finland around the clock. I hear that the requirements for transport contracts are strict, and the cargo must be delivered regardless of the weather," said the Director of the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency. Virpi Anttila says.
The implementation of the projects is monitored in real time, and according to Anttila, the set quality requirements are still met quite well.
“In addition, approximately 120,000 customer feedbacks are received from road users each year, which is used to ensure quality and develop operations.”
Conditions are becoming increasingly demanding
The road network's maintenance debt has grown over the years – according to current estimates, to over 2,5 billion euros.
Professor Pauli Kolisoja The University of Tampere is particularly concerned that the design of infrastructure structures does not correspond to the loads of current traffic.
The total mass of trucks has doubled compared to the 1960s and 1970s, when the main road network was built. The mileage of truck traffic, i.e. the number of kilometres driven, has increased even more. In practice, the total load on the roads has therefore increased considerably.
When the pavement is in poor condition due to heavy use, it makes it difficult to carry out maintenance measures in practice – plowing, anti-slip and drainage will not be optimal, no matter how professional the contractors are.
"If we only repair when the structures are already broken, we will be late. It will also be more expensive," Kolisoja emphasizes.
At the same time as funding for basic road maintenance has shrunk, climate change is also challenging road structures. Increased rainfall, repeated thaw-freeze cycles, and the extension of winter storms into the winter season are deteriorating roads.
"The effects of climate change are especially visible in winter. Frost periods are getting shorter, precipitation is increasing and the number of sheltered weather events is increasing," Head of Unit at the Finnish Meteorological Institute Jaakko Nuottokari enumerates.
Winter roads also need RDI
Winter road maintenance methods today are completely different from what they were 60 years ago.
New technologies, data utilization, autonomous machines, artificial intelligence-assisted weather forecasting, quality control utilizing machine vision, and new measurement methods now enable a more accurate picture of the situation and precise control of measures. Some of the possibilities are already in use, while others are only in the future.
Pauli Kolisoja emphasizes that in Finnish conditions, the challenges of the road system will not be solved with the scarce road budgets currently in use. In the future, the infrastructure sector will need investments in research, development and innovation, i.e. RDI investments.
"Measurement alone is not enough. We need analysis and synthesis that targets the right measures in the right places – and preferably proactively," Kolisoja emphasizes.
Leading expert at INFRA, who himself holds a doctoral degree in road engineering Nina Raitanen confirms this. He also sees the ability to conduct domestic road research in Finland as a prerequisite for smooth winter maintenance.
"The sector's access to traditional funding sources has been limited. The best solution in the future would be the infrastructure sector's own RDI program."
“It's time for road users to wake up”
If the conditions of road maintenance change, so do road users. There is a completely different generation in traffic than in the 1960s and 1970s. Today's motorists' expectations of the level of winter maintenance and their understanding of driver responsibility may be different than before.
"It's time for road users to wake up. We can no longer wait for the authorities to fix everything immediately. We all have to participate in maintaining safety," reminds Virpi Anttila of the Finnish Transport Agency.
One worrying phenomenon regarding changed behavior, INFRA's Nina Raitanen highlights, is that collisions with crash absorbers intended for the safety of road workers have increased.
"We don't even slow down, we just drive forward at full speed."
The positive thing is that the additional funding from Petteri Orpo's government has eased the situation for the road sector and created a little more predictability.
Anttila says that in 2025, 118 million euros remain from the government program's debt repair package, of which approximately 100 million are planned to be allocated to paving in 2026. It is estimated that the money will pave approximately 2,300–2,400 kilometers of roads.
"The additional funding has also enabled repairs to be made on less trafficked, regionally important roads, where many small contractors operate. We of course hope that the additional funding will continue in the future," he says.
According to Anttila, the road network has been successfully maintained largely thanks to proactive maintenance, expertise and the contractors' modern equipment. This has ensured the most critical maintenance measures.
"Daily trafficability is a strategic choice in Finland. It will be secured, even if we have to prioritize measures more precisely than before," Anttila promises.
Snow and ice expected – this is how Finland plows
In winter maintenance, Finland is divided into nine winter maintenance contract areas, each of which covers approximately a thousand kilometers of road network. Each contract is put out to tender every five years using nationally uniform documents. Five main contractors compete for the contracts.
The contracts are divided into 79 subcontracts, involving approximately 1500 companies and employing 3000 people.
The implementation of the treatment is based on close, alliance-like cooperation between the ELY centres acting as the contracting authority, as well as the main contractors and local contractors.
Why does the public contracting authority work with a few large contractors and not agree directly with all 1500 local companies? According to the Finnish Transport Agency, there are not enough resources for anything else. The current road maintenance contract model allows for the participation of small operators, as the main contractor can negotiate contracts with local companies without burdensome public procurement processes.
YIT Director Timo Paavilainen considers the current model to be good due to its collaboration and target price. He still finds the risk sharing unfair. “Currently, general contractors bear a large part of the winter maintenance risks because, for example, the severity of the winter does not affect the target price,” Paavilainen says.
Four snowy facts about winter road maintenance
- Plowing starts on the end network, when two centimeters of snow has accumulated. On the lower road network, the decision is made by local construction management.
- Quick changes are part of the ploughman's everyday life, and anticipation is key in the work. For example, snow accumulation can happen very quickly.
- The role of meteorological advance knowledge and expertise is now being strongly emphasized. It helps prevent significant traffic disruptions. Main contractors obtain weather information from various actors such as the Finnish Meteorological Institute.
- What is weather forecasting based on? Observational data, artificial intelligence and advanced weather models. For example, weather cameras produce images that are analyzed by machine vision. The accuracy of weather forecasts has improved by one day per decade.
Anttila, Kolisoja, Nuottokari, Raitanen and Paavilainen participated in a media briefing on winter road maintenance organized by INFRA ry in cooperation with the Finnish Meteorological Institute in autumn 2025. INFRA member companies were also represented at the event by Iisko Rossi from Terranor and Seppo Ylitapio from Destia.