The national construction safety competition annually rewards a construction site that has handled occupational safety issues in an exemplary manner. The top safety competitions have achieved strong results in the past, but this year's competition made the chief judge particularly happy.
"Now people are really excited to compete for safety," says the inspector happily. Kari Härkönen From the Occupational Safety and Health Department of the Finnish Licensing and Supervision Agency. He served as the chief judge of the national occupational safety competition for the building construction industry. Härkönen says that he was also positively surprised that large and multi-actor construction sites for commercial premises and renovations came out on top with top results. The differences were measured in hundredths of the TR index.
SRV's hospital building construction site is at the forefront
The Ohkola new building construction site won the 2025 national building construction occupational safety competition with a TR measurement index of 99,49. This is a forensic psychiatric hospital building for the Laakso Community Hospital Alliance. SRV is the main contractor for the alliance.
The Ohkola construction site is a good example of investing in the work of the occupational safety representative. In Ohkola, the representative has been given a lot of freedom of action and the burden of daily safety work has also been shared.
"The delegate guides, guides and makes safety observations throughout the working day on the construction site. Observations are dealt with at a low threshold, and even if there is no acute danger, we want to prevent near-miss situations in good time", Ohkola construction site manager Juha North Stream says.
Health and safety representative Karo Ironman can only smile happily next to me. “The most important thing for me is meeting people. We talk about all sorts of things, and not everything has to be related to the work. What’s your business is always a good start,” he explains his strategy. “The LYS project has safety instructions that go beyond the law, which we sometimes have to remind you about on the construction site. You always have to apply for a separate permit to use chainsaws, we have set the fall protection at one and a half meters, and scissor lifts must also have fall protection connected,” occupational safety manager Juha Aaltonen enumerates.
"The construction site has always received praise for its cleanliness, a safe construction site is always clean," project manager Mika Sairanen reminds us. There are two full-time cleaners working at the Ohkola construction site.
What motivates the winning construction site to maintain a good level of safety day after day?
"Every working day when there are no deviations of any kind on the construction site encourages us to continue moving forward. When production goes as planned, it shows that a large team has succeeded in their work. Productivity and safety go hand in hand," summarizes Juha Aaltonen, an important point.
Silver for the renovation of NCC's historic building
The National Museum renovation site came in second in the competition with a score of 99,45. It was four hundredths of a point behind the winner. The average TR measurement for the entire 18-year construction period is 99,3. This is a tough number for a renovation site where difficult demolition work has been carried out and whose steep roof slopes have required large, complex scaffolding solutions. According to the competition's chief judge, Kari Härkönen, the biggest safety challenges on construction sites currently lie in scaffolding, especially in the tying down of platforms.
"It is absolutely essential for us that dangerous work phases are identified in advance, so that work can be planned safely," says the responsible foreman. Tuomas Nousiainen says. "It's a really great feeling when you get a good spirit and the right kind of safety culture on the construction site. The largest possible team is involved in advance planning and risk identification. When the team gets excited, the work starts to support itself, and after that you don't have to intervene in everything anymore," he describes the positive safety cycle.
"Senaatti Properties, acting as the client, coordinates safety with great ambition and is constantly involved in building a safe construction site for us." Senate Construction Manager Ari Kiiskinen "It has also played a big role in our doing so well in the competition," Tuomas Nousiainen says, thanking them for the good cooperation.
Third large commercial property extension
When five hundredths separate you from victory and one hundredth from second place, third place can be disappointing.
"It doesn't bother me at all. It's just great that we have a lot of safe construction sites," honestly answers the construction site manager of Jatke, which came in third in the safety competition. Pekka Ruokonen.
The Keilaniemi Porti office building, which is the competition target for the extension, is a large and demanding construction site. “It was immediately apparent at the start of the construction site that it would be located in a tight space next to Ring Road 1, a challenging traffic junction. When the building’s eaves height rises to over 50 meters, the combination is quite challenging,” says Ruokonen.
The fact that a demanding business premises construction project only leaves a hundredth of a profit increases the value of the investment even more.
“In commercial construction, the number of contractors is greater and managing the whole is more challenging than in residential construction. Safety principles must always be implemented all the way to the end of the production chain,” he emphasizes. According to Ruokonen, when you want to invest in safety on a construction site, it is worth first considering whether it will be possible with the practices and tools already in use – just by doing everything better and more carefully. Assessing work risks is a basic requirement on construction sites, but even that can be done well or poorly.
At the Keilaniemi Porti construction site, the aim has also been to avoid restricting the occupational safety and health representative's activities too much, but to also allow time for meeting people.
“The idea is that even though we do technical things, they are always done by people,” says Ruokonen.
In addition to the successful construction site logistics, he wants to highlight the excellent cleaning team at the construction site for the good outcome.
"Once again, we saw a high level of competition. It shows that companies now have a strong desire to invest in occupational well-being and safety. Hopefully, the tradition of competition will continue and develop in the coming years," says RT's expert responsible for safety issues. Henri Litmanen.
The 10 best construction sites in the national competition in 2025:
- SRV Construction Ltd, new building in Ohkola
- NCC Suomi Oy, National Museum renovation
- Jatke Office Spaces Ltd, Keilaniemi Portti
- YIT Construction Ltd, Raisio Kertunlinna
- Hartela Southern Finland Ltd, As Ltd Water Tower Hill
- JM Finland Ltd, As Ltd Daylight Saving Time
- YIT Housing Oy, Tampere Summer Wind
- Hausia Oy, Finnoon Schooner
- Construction company Lapti Oy, Himos Project
- Skanska Building Construction Ltd, Wäinö Aaltonen Museum
More information
Henri Litmanen
Specialist, occupational safety
henri.litmanen@rt.fi +358 50 576 5988Talonrakennusteollisuus ry, Uusimaa
National occupational safety competition
The national construction safety competition seeks and rewards a construction site that has managed occupational safety issues in an exemplary manner. The competition has been organized alternately between building and infrastructure construction since 2010. In the national safety competition in 2025, it was the turn of building construction.
The competition is organized by the Finnish Building Industry and Property Owners and Developers Rakli. The organizers' partners include INFRA, the Finnish Construction Federation, the Finnish Trade Union Pro, the Finnish Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Finnish Occupational Safety and Health Centre.