The Finnish government has published a Prior Information Notice (PIN) in the Official Journal of the European Union for the Design, Build, Finance, Maintain and Operate (DBFMO) of the Hamina-Vaalimaa section of the E18  highway. The notice said that the tender process is expected to begin in March 2014.

This section is part of the Nordic Triangle and it will remove a bottleneck of one of the most important highway connections between the EU and Russia. The expected investment volume of the global project, a 32km highway section, is €265 million.

Finland's Sweco PM Oy was appointed last week as technical advisor to support the administration during the tender process in a €2 million contract.

The Finnish Transport Agency has applied the PPP model in two previous road projects: Kotka-Koskenkylä and the motorway Lohja, which are both parts of the E18 route. The road section between Järvenpää and Lahti on main road 4 has also been built using the PPP model.

After the estimated completion in 2018, the entire length of the road will be improved to motorway status.

The road will include a parking area for about 500 lorries and the approach routes for heavy traffic to the border will be completely rearranged.

The new 32-kilometre long motorway will mainly be built in the middle of the forest, north of the existing road. The construction work will not cause any significant inconveniences to traffic. The road be have a 250-metre long tunnel, 34 bridges, two rest areas and 8.4 kilometres of pedestrian and bicycle paths.

The initiative will be monitored by the Trans-European Transport Network Executive Agency (TEN-T EA).