Year: 2018

New employees have started work on the West Metro project: Heli Niesniemi as a project engineer, Juha Mäkipirtti as a construction supervisor at the Finnoo station, Jari Järvinen as an electrical expert at the Finnoo station and  Anna-Stina Tähkävuori as a project engineer at Kivenlahti.

Heli Niesniemi works in purchases. The purchases for the construction phase of the West Metro have been divided into building contacts and subordinated subcontracts, such as lifts and escalators. Niesniemi focuses on concluding subordinated subcontracts in her work.

Having graduated as a Master of Science in Technology from Aalto University, she is also studying law at the University of Helsinki.

“A knowledge of law is useful in this job. I have explored competition law and public procurement in my studies, and therefore procurement law has become familiar in this area, too. This is a dream job in that it combines expertise from both degrees,” says Niesniemi, who is completing a Master of Laws degree.

Niesniemi has previous worked as a contractor at NCC, where she advanced from the worksite to managerial duties. She has subsequently participated in many infrastructure projects at Sweco PM.

“When the opportunity to become involved in the metro project came along, I joined enthusiastically. This is a unique and extremely interesting project that will have a considerable impact on people’s daily life,” says Niesniemi.

New building and a long-term project awakened interest

Civil engineer Juha Mäkipirtti works as a construction supervisor at the Finnoo station. He ensures that the contractor adheres to the plans and agreements and complies with good building practice.

Mäkipirtti has approximately four and a half years’ experience in supervisory work at Demaco Oy. He has supervised the construction of, e.g. hospitals, schools, data centres and shopping centres. Prior to this, he worked at YIT in site management within home construction for over 20 years.

“I’m interested in new building, which is what the metro, too, represents. I also enjoy long-term projects, and station construction shares many similarities with shopping centre construction,” Mäkipirtti says.

Bringing experience via Singapore and Italy to the West Metro

Electrical expert Jari Järvinen works on the West Metro project as a consultant for Rakennuttajatoimisto HTJ Oy. Before this, he worked as a construction project manager in project management contracting for commercial construction at Skanska, and has participated in the construction of refineries at Neste Jacobs as a site manager and supervisor.

Järvinen has over 30 years’ experience in the electricity sector. He also spent approximately five years abroad working in a power plant project in Thailand and in an oil refinery project in Singapore. The process of designing of the refinery was carried out in Italy, where Järvinen also lived.

The West Metro interested me, as this is a large and long-term project. I have previously been involved in major projects, and so this felt like my own area.

Metro part of the future transport system

Anna-Stina Tähkävuori will return to the project after her maternity leave. She has been with the project organisation since 2012 working in design control. Already before this, the metro became familiar in her work as an excavation contract site engineer with YIT. Her work will now continue as a project engineer in the Kivenlahti site organisation.

Tähkävuori will be responsible in the construction phase for scheduling of the Kivenlahti station, cost monitoring and quality assurance. Once the building contract has started, some of her working hours will be spent on the site working in close cooperation with the contractors.

Tähkävuori is a Bachelor of Engineering. In conjunction with working, she is continuing her studies by completing a Master’s degree in the transport sector at Häme University of Applied Sciences. Tähkivuori is specialising in future transport systems. The study programme considers how digitalisation and automation as well as transport services will affect mobility in the future.

“The metro, for its part, is part of the transport of the future. Länsimetro is a brilliant place in which to learn, as one gets to see so many different areas of construction and how a major project progresses,” Tähkävuori says.

Perttu Tavia (M.Sc. (Tech.)), has started in the  West Metro project as a project engineer. Tavia works on the entrances to be built in Matinkylä and Tapiola at the Ruoholahti–Matinkylä section of the West Metro. The southern entrance at Merituulentie and a bus terminal will be constructed in Tapiola. Construction is closely interlinked with the third phase of construction of the Ainoa Shopping Centre already under way.  It will be possible to take the western entrance into use at Matinkylä when other construction in the area moves forward.

Tavia’s duties also include warranty inspection and coordination of the building contracts and building services engineering works.

Before working on the West Metro, Tavio worked for six years at Lemminkäinen Infra Oy (currently YIT Infra Oy). He has also accumulated experience in contracts working on the Helsinki Olympic Stadium, the Vuosaari Harbour tunnel and the Matinkylä metro station.

“Since I was a student it has been my aim to experience the construction sector from as wide a perspective as possible. I’m pleased that I’m able see these jobs from different angles – I already know a great deal about the project. Now, I’m just on the customer side,” Tavia says.

In addition to the actual construction works, Tavia is able to participate in design control and procurement.

“I will get to see the cycle of the entire project,” says Tavia delightedly.

Perttu Tavia

The Board of Länsimetro Oy convened on 20 March. The adjusted and project plan presented at and approved by Espoo City Council on 19 March was presented to the Board.

The next meeting will be held on 29 March.

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 tunnels of the second phase of the West Metro linked when a new connection was excavated between the Espoonlahti and Kivenlahti rail tunnels on 16 February 2018.

The second phase of the West Metro has now linked all the rail tunnels with each other. The excavation contracts began during the period 2015 and 2016, and the tunnels at each site were excavated at the same time. Towards the end, the tunnels were separated from each other by thin rock plugs, which were removed when the excavations progressed to the contract limits.

With the exception of the Espoonlahti–Kivenlahti section, all of the plugs between the rail tunnels were removed in 2017, including the depot connection.  The connection from Matinkylä, the last station of the West Metro’s first phase, to Finnoo, the first station of the second phase, was opened in November 2017.

An approximately three-metre layer of rock, equivalent to some 350 solid cubic metres, was removed in the last breakthrough. The breakthrough was implemented by blasting.

Five new metro stations are being constructed for the second phase west of Matinkylä: Finnoo, Kaitaa, Soukka, Espoonlahti and Kivenlahti. In addition, an underground metro depot will be constructed in Sammalvuori.

Kalliorakennus-Yhtiöt Oy, the excavation contractor at the Kivenlahti site, has been named the West Metro’s Safest worksite. The review period of the competition was from 1 July to 31 December 2017. The competition is organised semi-annually and its participants are all current West Metro worksites.

The prize is a gilded piece of rail track, engraved with the name of the winning contractor.

The award is granted on the basis of accident frequency monitoring and civil engineering worksite safety level (MVR) measurements. MVR measurements are carried out weekly on sites to measure different factors affecting safety, such as worksite cleanliness, condition of machinery and equipment, storage facilities, and protective equipment.

The worksite with the best ranking scores in accident frequency monitoring and MVR measurements is named the winner. MVR results are given a weight of 80% in the ranking, while accident frequency monitoring carries a weight of 20%.

“It feels good to receive this award for the second time already,” says Panu Oikkonen from Kalliorakennus-Yhtiöt Oy.

The excavation as well as the demolition preceding the excavation for the Soukka construction site of the Länsimetro for the Yläkartanontie entrance will start in March. Preparations were started in December for the construction work with traffic arrangements on Yläkartanontie.

Along with the exceptional traffic arrangements, a part of the parking slots will be removed from the Yläkartanonkuja parking area. Replacement slots have been arranged at Kartanonkulma.

A worksite fence will be built in the next phase and a worksite will be established.

The demolition of the so-called Puotitalo will start after mid-March. At about mid-May the construction of a sheet pile wall will start, which will cause noise pollution. At the end of May the actual excavation of the entrance itself will begin, lasting until the end of July.

Information will be given regarding every work phase separately as the work progresses and the schedules become more exact.

Further information:

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

West Metro feedback phone number (Mon–Fri 9.00 AM–3.00 PM): +358 (0)50 377 3700

Joni Kukko (civil engineer, AMK) has started as the project engineer for the Kaitaa Station in the Länsimetro project.

The project is now in its acquisition phase, and Kukko will start his work by going through the contract and tender documents. After the construction work begins he will be seen more often at the worksite also.

Kukko said, “In addition to the worksite my work also includes supervision of billing and schedules.”

Kukko transferred to the Länsimetro project from Skanska, where he worked as a production engineer and in work direction activities for a total of four years. He was involved in, among other things, the building of the Lauttasaari Metro Station.

“My earlier work was very worksite oriented, so the project engineer job is a significant change for me. I will get more into work that corresponds to my education, and this is just the right place to do so,” said Kukko, who specialized in project management and production in his engineer education.

Kukko, who observed construction on a contractor side earlier, is waiting to observe construction from the perspective of the client.

“I have considered construction jobs earlier also, and I became interested when this opportunity came along. I expect above all else to develop and grow as an engineer. This is such a large project that everything possible will be seen in it,” said Kukko.

Claes Stigzelius (MSc. Eng.) has been appointed as Site Manager of the Länsimetro project from 1 January 2018. Stigzelius will serve as the Site Manager, based at the Finnoo station, of the Matinkylä-Kivenlahti section.

“As Site Manager, I will be in charge of construction alongside the Real Estate Development Manager. For example, I will engage in contract negotiations with contractors and be in close contact with them while the construction site is in place. When construction begins, I will spend more and more of my day on the construction site,” says Stigzelius.

Stigzelius is transferring to the West Metro project as a Project Management Consultant for other Sweco PM projects. Before Sweco PM, he was an entrepreneur for around 20 years, leading his own construction consultancy firm. During his career, he has been involved in the construction of buildings such as Biltema and Plantagen stores.

“The West Metro is a new kind of challenge for me, since it is such a large project. It will be great to learn how such a large organisation works,” says Stigzelius.

During his first month involved with the West Metro, Stigzelius has familiarised himself with the project by attending meetings and studying construction plans – as well as getting to know other West Metro employees.

“This seems like a good and relaxed work community, where you can be yourself,” says Stigzelius.

Over 500,000 documents and nearly a thousand users – if placed one after the other as sheets of A4 paper, the West Metro data portal files would reach from Helsinki to Rovaniemi.

In the megaproject, data management – or, the management of data management data, as Ulla Valtonen, Life Cycle and Risk Manager at West Metro puts it – is crucial.

“Data management can be exciting, easy, challenging or impossible, depending on how it is organised. Many paper archives or separate electronic systems remain in use,” she points out.

For the West Metro, Valtonen decided to solve the issue of data management differently. Together with project engineer Timo Mankki, she has developed a data portal for the project that combines all data management throughout the project’s life cycle. Viasys VCD Oy is responsible for the technical implementation of the portal.

“Our starting point was that data management must be simple and primarily serve maintenance needs. Data content must be kept up-to-date and reliable, and no information may be lost at any stage of the life cycle. The data covers all aspects of the metro: rail structures, stations, shafts, access tunnels and technical systems,” Valtonen explains.

A system unlike any other

Development of the data portal began in 2010, and the result was a system unlike anything in use elsewhere.

“As we began to develop the portal, there was no existing system that included all the data we required, from rock engineering to track engineering and the significant amount of equipment used in technical systems. Another starting point for the development work was that the system could later be adapted to other applications, such as a maintenance manual for an icebreaker,” says Väyrynen.

The data portal first saw use in production on 1 September 2017, when the Ruoholahti-Matinkylä section of the metro was completed. The portal will be complete once construction of the second phase of the metro to Kivenlahti is ready.

The data portal aids in daily use

The data portal combines all information related to the West Metro: construction plans and their inspection and approval, monitoring of the conformance of building products and materials and their service and user manuals, monitoring of the progress of contracts and work performance, and verifications of the monitoring of implementation and reception and their inspection documents.

Above all, the data portal is designed to assist in the daily upkeep of the metro.

“The idea is that it is not the implementation of the project that matters most, but rather its future operation. In comparison, it could be said that while the metro has taken around ten years to plan and construct, the lifespan of both the electronic maintenance manual and the metro itself is still ten times longer,” Valtonen says.

From the outset, the data is sorted to suit the needs of maintenance and servicing. It can later be retrieved in the portal with location data and searched based on, for instance, a station, pile, room, floor or even a single piece of equipment.

Maintenance data is also collected during use. As the infrastructure’s owner, Länsimetro Oy receives maintenance and service reports on the practical implementation of service tasks from the maintenance manual. The system therefore also helps to ensure passenger safety.

“The maintenance manual contains data on matters such as the properties and their technical systems, such as HVAC systems, as well as superstructures such as conductor rails, train tracks and safety equipment,” Valtonen explains.

Anywhere, anytime

In designing the data portal, user comfort has been taken into account: the portal can be used online with all devices from desktop computers to tablets and smart phones. The right data must be available in the maintenance site without delay, and the acknowledgement of maintenance procedures and addition of new tasks are possible on site.

“All procedures must leave an individual name and time stamp. The data must anticipate a situation where the records of performed tasks need to be reviewed,” Valtonen says.

The portal and maintenance manual are accessed through a user interface that is customised according to each work role. It connects many different partners to the same information.

“The data portal can be accessed by, for example, West Metro planners and contractors as well as local inspection authorities and rescue services. All are able to view their required information from anywhere with Internet access,” Valtonen says.

The contractor Kalliorakennus-Yhtiöt Oy will perform additional excavations in Kivenlahti as part of the excavation project for the station and rail tunnel of the West Metro. The excavations will begin in January 2018 and are estimated to continue until July 2018.

In the additional excavations, the rail tunnels will be extended some 70 to 80 metres west of the current contract area boundary to meet the needs of the traffic operator HKL. A connection tunnel will also be excavated between the rail tunnels.

Tunnel excavation work will be carried out on weekdays between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. in accordance with the noise permit. The loading and transportation of excavated rock may also be carried out between 9 a.m. and 10 p.m. on Saturdays.

Further information:

Länsimetro feedback phone number (Mon–Fri 9.00–15.00): +358 50 377 3700

Hotline for the site (24/7): +358 50 342 2461