Saimaa canal No ship now dares to operate on the Saimaa canal – An alternative was already invented in the 1990s, but it will never materialize

The Kymijoki – Mäntyharju canal project was investigated for years until it was buried unprofitable.

In Finland a billion-channel canal project was investigated in the 1990s, which has again fluctuated from time to time due to the situation on the Saimaa canal.

The Saimaa canal, which runs partly on the Russian side, is open, but no one wants to operate there because Russia is considered unpredictable.

For years, the idea of ​​the Kymijoki and Mäntyharju canals was on display for years, which together would have created a waterway from the sea to both Päijänne and Saimaa. The pair of canals would have been made for even larger cargo ships than can now accommodate the Saimaa canal.

And the new channels would have run entirely within Finland’s borders.

Now the most enthusiastic would be to bring the Kymijoki – Mäntyharju canal back to the table.

This has also been noticed by the leading expert of the Finnish Railways Agency Olli Holm. He is familiar with the recent canal project, as in the 1990s he now worked for the Finnish Maritime Administration’s Maritime Administration.

“Then the project was handled properly and worked out as well as it could, “he says.

“At the time, we were in a slightly similar situation as now, because the topical issue was the extension of the lease agreement for the Saimaa canal. It was considered what will happen to the Saimaa canal and whether there are alternatives. ”

The last reports on the project were published in 2000. the Finnish Maritime Administration in the report the dimensions, environmental issues, costs and profitability of the channel options were compared.

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Kymijoki the canal would have opened a shipping lane from Päijänne to the sea. The 145-kilometer-long waterway would have run from Heinola to the east of Kotka, roughly following the Kymijoki River. There would have been nine locks in the canal.

The Mäntyharju canal planned between Heinola and Ristiina would have connected the Saimaa watershed to the Kymijoki canal and through it to the sea. There would have been five locks in the 95-kilometer canal. The Saimaa canal is 50 kilometers long and has eight locks.

The Kymijoki – Mäntyharju canal was surveyed with two dimensions. In the larger version, the canal would have accommodated 130-meter vessels. The lightened version was designed for 90-meter vessels, ie in the same size class as the Saimaa canal in the future, if the canal’s latest closure renovation had taken place.

Read more: HS information: Government cancels major overhaul of Saimaa canal – EUR 95 million left for Eastern Finland

Kymijoki – Mäntyharju the canal project involved many environmental risks. It was considered what would happen to the polluted bottom sediments of the Kymijoki River if the river basin were damaged.

“And what would happen to the entire river from an environmental perspective if it were made suitable for shipping,” Holm says.

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The impact of the canal project on Päijänne as a source of raw water was also a matter of concern, as the drinking water of Helsinki residents is diverted from Päijänne.

It was also not considered risk-free that the Mäntyharju canal crossed the watershed, connecting the Kymijoki and Vuoksi watersheds.

“There would have been costly pumping arrangements there to keep lake water levels at current levels. The natural flow would not have been sufficient for the closures. The water would have run out, ”Holm says.

Channel project crept for a wild price and a lousy price-efficiency. It was estimated that the construction of the Kymijoki – Mäntyharju canal would have cost FIM 8.4 billion.

According to the Bank of Finland’s monetary value calculator, it would be almost two billion euros in current money.

The benefits of the channel would have been non-existent in relation to the price: according to the study, the channel’s cost-benefit ratio was calculated to be 0.01.

The study found that even if demand for inland waterway transport increased by 50%, it would have little or no effect on the channel’s profitability.

“In the lighter version, the cost dropped by about 25 percent, but it was still a billion-dollar investment. In all options, profitability was close to zero. If the benefit-cost ratio is close to zero, there is no point in sacrificing public funds. The investigations were stopped, ”says Holm.

The channel project was finally crushed by the wild price and the lousy price-efficiency ratio.

Would be channel project realistic now that the situation in the Saimaa canal is uncertain again?

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It wouldn’t be, says Olli Holm.

The branch director of the Finnish Rail Agency agrees Esa Sirkiä.

“The question is: what kind of goods would go there, and what transport needs would it meet?” he says.

“In recent years, between one million and one and a half million tons of goods have passed through the Saimaa canal every year. It would require quite different traffic flows to have the slightest profitability. That should be a lot of stuff. ”

Holm points out that the forest industry, which is considered a potential user of the canal, has been closed down in both Päijänne and Saimaa. In addition, new nature reserves have been established in Kymijoki, so new plans should be made. That and a huge increase in construction costs would increase the price even higher.

“It would still be a billion-dollar project,” Holm says.

There are quite a few such waterway projects in Finland. The “hourly train connection” between Helsinki and Tampere is about billions. On the other hand, even large motorway and rail projects usually talk about hundreds of millions of euros, not billions.

If the Saimaa canal had been built in the 1990s, when the Kymijoki-Mäntyharju canal was explored, it is estimated that it would have cost “only” about 600 million euros, Holm says.

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