Temporary closure of a highway

Before submitting an application, the organizer of a medium or large event should contact the Economic Development Centre well in advance. In this context, the following issues related to the closure of roads needed for the planned event and transition sections for winter rally events will be addressed:

• Changes needed to the route planned by the organizer
• Documents that the organizer prepares for the permit process
• Publicity of the documents submitted by the organizer

You can leave a contact request through the Traffic Customer Service, tel. +358 295 020 600 (Mon-Fri 9 am-3 pm) or liikenteen.asiakaspalvelu(at)elinvoimakeskus.fi.

If you need a permit for professional public benefit testing activities, you can contact the Traffic Customer Service for further instructions.

Apply for a permit through the electronic service

Primarily use the electronic service for transactions. Logging into the service requires strong authentication. You will need either online banking credentials, a mobile certificate, or a certificate card.

If you cannot use the electronic service, you can write an informal application that includes all the necessary information about the event. Submit the informal application with attachments to the registry office of the Economic Development Centre in whose area the closed road sections or the majority of them are located. NOTE! When using this application method, an additional processing fee is charged in addition to the actual permit fee. The additional fee is half of the permit fee, but no more than 50 euros.

###

The application must contain the following information:

• event name, time and municipality
• all highways affected by the closure
• length of the highway sections to be closed and closing times per road
• a map that shows which road sections will be closed
• contact details of the organiser and contact person
• billing address and the applicant’s business ID or personal identity code
• a general plan of traffic control and contact details of the person responsible for traffic arrangements. The person in charge of the traffic arrangements is required to have Road Safety 2 training
• A maintenance agreement.

The permit decision is sent to the email address the applicant has announced. The permit decision provides more detailed instructions and explains the applicant’s obligations.

The permit decision includes a permit to place traffic control installations necessary for closing the highway. If the event also requires other traffic sign arrangements, you need to apply for a separate permit from the Economic Development Centre of Inner Finland.

Any traffic controllers are approved by the police. The applicant must also apply for other permits required for the event from other authorities (e.g. for organising a public event).

A maintenance agreement

In case the event causes road wear, the organiser of the event should prepare an agreement on the necessary maintenance of the closed road section. You can find instructions on how to devise a maintenance agreement from the shortcuts on the right side of the page.

The Finnish Defence Forces’ exercises

The Defence Forces must obtain a decision from the regional Economic Development Centreto temporarily close a section of a road network if the Defence Forces need to temporarily prevent or restrict public traffic to any part of a road network. If necessary, a maintenance agreement will also be made if the use of the road wears it down.

The new Road Traffic Act transferred the task from the police to the Economic Development Centres on 1 June 2020. In other respects, the Finnish Transport Agency’s guideline “Sotilasajoneuvot ja maantiet” (military vehicles and roads) (LIVI/1022/06.06.06./2017.) still applies.