Year: 2018

The Länsi-Uusimaa Department for Rescue Services is practicing at the Sammalvuori depot construction site on 14.5 and 23.5.2018 starting at 9:30 AM for about two hours. In both training exercises the accident situation is a small fire.

From four to seven Rescue Services units will participate in the exercises, and because of this emergency vehicles will be moving about in the vicinity of the depot. The drill will involve the use of harmless light grey smoke that is not hazardous to health. No calls to the Emergency Response Centre should be made concerning the smoke used in the rescue drill, unless the smoke originates from a source other than the drill.

The public are requested, as far as possible, to avoid the area where the exercise is taking place so as not to disturb the exercise.

The Länsi-Uusimaa Department of Rescue Services is preparing itself with the exercise for rescues during construction. The excavation work at the Sammalvuori depot has ended and construction begun. Pouring of concrete and building infrastructure work is being done at the worksite.

Further information on the drill:

Länsimetro Oy, Satu Linkola, Communications Manager, tel. +358 (0)46 877 3392

Fire Chief Janne Räsänen, Länsi-Uusimaa Rescue Department, tel. +358 (0)45 130 8573

The excavation of the Yläkartanontie entrance will start in the Länsimetro Soukka worksite. Yläkartanontie is one of the two entrances to the completed Metro station.

Making a sheet pile wall will begin the week starting on 21 May in conjunction with the ground construction, which will cause noise pollution.

The pile driving will last an estimated five days, and it can be done on weekdays from Monday to Friday from 7:00 AM to 6:00 PM. The working hours are based on a noise permit granted by the Espoo Environment Centre.

Reinforcement work, including injection drilling and bolt drilling, is estimated to be done from the end of May to the middle of October. In the beginning of July the actual open excavation of the entrance will start, which will last to the end of September, and the entire shaft will be ready by the end of October. Excavation work can be done on weekdays from Monday to Friday from 7:00 AM to 6:00 PM. The working hours are based on a noise permit granted by the Espoo Environment Centre.

The excavations of the tunnels at the Soukka worksite were already finished at the end of the Summer of 2017.

Further information:

Kalliorakennus-Yhtiöt Oy, Site Manager Meeri Kaartinen, tel. +358 (0)50-3411970

Länsimetro feedback phone number (Mon–Fri 9:00 AM –3:00 PM): +358 (0)50 377 3700

See map in larger scale

 

Toni Paananen (builder, B.Sc.) has started as the supervisor of the Länsimetro rail line’s building project.

Paananen will supervise the rail line project starting in early summer, which includes, among other things, concrete work and installation of elements. The supervisor functions as an important link between the contractor and the customer, and the work also includes following up on the schedule and checking invoices.

Paananen has had a long career in renovation; the last seven years he worked at Lemminkäinen (now YIT) in hotel and business location projects. His career has included, among others, the Cumulus Hotel (now Scandic) in Töölö.

“Länsimetro was attractive because this provides completely new challenges after renovation construction. There are a lot of similarities in construction principles – the same laws of nature work in concrete work and installation of elements, either above ground or under it. I also get to learn completely new things. Another Metro project will hardly come along in a career, so this is certainly a unique project,” says Paananen.

Get to know the phases of the Metro-tunnel’s construction

Länsimetro’s new situation centre engineer Joonatan Piela sits in a room where the walls are covered with situation information of the Metro construction: the progression of Länsimetro’s five stations, depot, rail line, and side projects is represented with colours familiar from traffic lights.

The job of Piela, who started in the project in mid-April, is to track the progression of schedules and keep the information of the situation centre up to date. The information of each station and side project is updated at least once a week; the progression of, among other things, planning and permits is depicted on the walls.

The situation centre of the Länsimetro is currently expanding, Piela has jumped into the middle of a development phase.

“It is great to be creating something new. I am learning a lot here myself also, but on the other hand I have the opportunity to put into practice the subject of my Master’s thesis,” says Piela.

Piela graduated as a Master of Science from the Lappeenranta Technical University in 2017 majoring in Industrial Management. In his Master’s thesis he concentrated on measurement and visualisation of KPI- or key measurements.

During his last years of study Piela worked closely with Destia Rail, where he was involved in the project for Länsimetro’s first phase rail line. The work included, among other things, accounting, invoicing, and quality documentation. After graduation Piela worked at Destia Rail full time as a development engineer tracking cost data and KPI-measures.

“After graduation I wondered which direction to head, and when I saw the advertisement for the position of situation centre engineer I became interested. I knew the project from previous work, and the job description fit my own know-how,” says Piela.

As the situation centre engineer Piela handles a huge amount of data and gathers it in one situation centre. The data is gathered from the systems used by different projects, and at times Piela also participates in meetings in which he receives new data for the situation room.

“Large amounts of data are becoming more important in all kinds of business in the future. I believe that this job will give a good foothold in project management, as well as in the world of tracking measurements and schedules,” says Piela.

A new location manager, Kimmo Hirvonen has been appointed for the Soukka location organization. The location manager directs the construction of the station, maintains contact with the planning and contractors, and supervises the contractors’ activity.

“The management and direction of the whole is important in this role,” says Hirvonen.

Hirvonen has worked, among others, in Valmet Ltd. and Rakennuttajatoimisto HTJ Ltd. building business locales and industry projects. He has international experience from Uruguay and Portugal, where he was involved in building pulp factories, as well as from power plant projects in the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and Denmark. In Finland Hirvonen has worked with, among others, the Äänekoski biotech plant and several commercial projects in the Capital City area and in the Tampere region.

“Projects like the Metro do not come up very often in one’s career, so of course I grabbed this opportunity with interest. I have generally also been interested in “once in a lifetime” projects, the building of a pulp factory in Uruguay was a similar experience,” says Hirvonen.

2018 was a time of procurement for the Länsimetro project. Contractors for five metro stations, rail lines, and a total of 24 side projects will be tendered in the project.

“The bids will be received during the Spring for the rail line as well as the Soukka and Kivenlahti stations. The tenders for all the stations will be made by October, but the last side projects will still be tendered in the Spring of 2019,” said project director Aku Kallio.

The acquisitions for building can be started when the excavations have been finished and the construction planning has advanced sufficiently. The excavations of the Kaitaa and Soukka stations are ready already, and the excavations at the rest of the stations are being finished.

The station contracts will be tendered by a negotiation method – in it the contractors send participation applications after their preliminary acquisitions notifications, which will be evaluated according to the set requirements. After this negotiations will be held with the contractors and they can present development ideas, on the basis of which the tenders may be supplemented. Only after the negotiations the tender is shaped into the final tender.

A limited procurement method is used mainly for the side projects, in which no separate negotiation phase is included with the contractors. The side projects are mainly different technical systems and devices, such as elevators and escalators, which will be realized with similar basic solutions over the whole Länsimetro phase two area. The deliveries requiring a long production or delivery time will be acquired first.

The starting point in the building of the Länsimetro is a quality end product starting from acquisitions. In the acquisitions of building contracts quality is weighted 30 percent and price 70 percent.

“We want to have knowledgeable and trustworthy actors involved. The providers must have sufficient resources and experience from similar contracts or deliveries. In addition the providers must be financially stable,” acquisitions engineer Samuli Silvast said.

The acquisitions strategy is now entirely different than on the Länsimetro Ruoholahti-Matinkylä portion. The greatest change is that for construction work, unit price contracts have been transferred to project management (PJU) contracts, where interaction and collaboration with contractors are emphasized.

“The practice of interactive partnerships for acquisitions began already in the last year with market dialogues. We consult actors in the industry and collect the latest information from the market even before we publish the acquisition announcements, we actively sought interaction, ideas and knowledge from contractors. This idea will continue with the chosen form of implementation, as we work together in project management contracting. Working together in a big room spirit, by working out and developing plans, and we utilize the expertise of the contractors from the start,” says Kallio.

The Board of Länsimetro Oy convened on 26 April.

A status update on the second phase, Matinkylä–Kivenlahti, was presented to the Board. Excavations, planning, application for building permits and procurement are proceeding on schedule and in accordance with the adjusted cost estimate.

Status updates on the maintenance and servicing of the first phase of the West Metro, the Ruoholahti-Matinkylä section, were presented to the Board. Länsimetro Oy handed over the stations and rail to HKL for the initiation of traffic on 3 October 2017. The rail, its technical systems and the eight stations remained in the ownership of Länsimetro Oy. HKL shall report to Länsimetro Oy on the use of the track and stations and the related service and maintenance tasks as agreed.

The next meeting will be held on 23 May.

Further information:

Ville Saksi, CEO, Länsimetro Oy, tel. +358 (0)40 823 2086

Olli Isotalo, Chairman of the Board of Länsimetro Oy, tel. +358 (0)50 593 3359

Media contacts: Satu Linkola,Communications Director, tel. +358 (0)46 877 3392

The Board of Länsimetro Oy convened on 29 March.

The Board discussed Länsimetro Oy´s statement of accounts for 2017.

A status update on the second phase, Matinkylä–Kivenlahti, and a model for building a situational picture was presented to the Board. Excavations, planning, application for building permits and procurement are proceeding on schedule and in accordance with the adjusted cost estimate.

Board discussed the competitive tendering for the construction of the rail line. The EU procurement notice was published in the public procurement notification channel HILMA on 15 December 2017. The procurement procedure is a negotiated procedure. The Board also decided on the contractor. Information on the selected contractor will be provided at the time of signing the contract.

Status updates on the maintenance and servicing of the first phase of the West Metro, the Ruoholahti-Matinkylä section, were presented to the Board. Länsimetro Oy handed over the stations and rail to HKL for the initiation of traffic on 3 October 2017. The rail, its technical systems and the eight stations remained in the ownership of Länsimetro Oy. HKL shall report to Länsimetro Oy on the use of the track and stations and the related service and maintenance tasks as agreed.

The next meeting will be held on 26 April.

Further information:

Ville Saksi, CEO, Länsimetro Oy, tel. +358 (0)40 823 2086

Olli Isotalo, Chairman of the Board of Länsimetro Oy, tel. +358 (0)50 593 3359

Media contacts: Satu Linkola,Communications Director, tel. +358 (0)46 877 3392