The Finnish National Road Administration (Finnra) continues to be an active government member in PIARC. Finnra's Vice Director General, Mr. Jarkko Saisto and Depuly Director, Mr. Tapani Maatta, are the official Finnish delegates in PlARC's Permanent International Commission. Finnra also has representatives in most of PlARC's Committees andWorking Groups. In addition, the Executive Dilector of FinnT2 is a member of the INTERCHANGE Organizing Group.
The XX Worid Road Congress of PIARC took place in Montreal, Canada on Septerber 3-9, 1995.
Also the INTERCHANGE inauguration takes place in Montreal during the Congress. In 1992 Finnra launched a comprehensive research project, Road Traffic in Winter. The Project was completed recently. This issue of FinnContact concentrates on the results of the Project, and is available also at the Montreal World Congress.
Jarmo Ikonen
In Finland sodium chloride (NaCI) is mainly used for chemical de-icing. Sanding is used only on less trafficked roads. Recently, the possibility that salt used in de-icing may accumulate in aquifers has been a source of great concern. The use of studded tyres in Finland started at the beginning of the 1960's. Ever since Finland has been and still is the leading country in the use of studded tyres. In wintertime, 95 % of passenger cars ride on studded tyres.
The simultaneous use of salt and studded tyres in de-icing causes problems. Studded tyres aggressively wear the pavement and thus also increase harmful dust effects. In the 90's the risk of oversalting aquifers has become a public debate and has been regarded as a serious problem. Therefore, a significant reduction in road salting has been demanded, and even its complete discontinuation in some sensitive areas is under way.
To acquire more information into solving these controversial problems a wide research program, Road Traffic in Winter, was launched by Finnra. The main objective of the program was to evaluate new alternative winter maintenance scenarios for improving social benefits. The Project that included over 40 subprojects and had the total costs of about 3.5 million USD, was completed in May,1995.
Arto Tevaj�rvi