Tell us what you think about the winter maintenance of Helsinki’s streets

This survey covers the winter maintenance of pavements, cycling lanes and streets, as well as the outdoor recreation routes and park pathways that are cleared of snow in the winter. Additionally, you will also be able to give feedback on the maintenance of paths through the yards of city properties (e.g. schools, day-care centres). Responding will take approximately 5–10 minutes.

You can respond to the survey in Finnish, Swedish or English. The replies will be used to help improve the maintenance efforts. 

Respond to the survey (map-based).

Short address: https://bit.ly/talvikunnossapito24

The visually impaired have the opportunity to respond to an accessible survey.

Short address of the accessible survey: https://bit.ly/talvikunnossapito24-kartaton

The survey is open until Monday, 18 March 2024. If you have specific feedback that requires immediate action, please send a message through the City of Helsinki feedback channel: hel.fi/palaute.

New trials in winter maintenance

This winter, the City of Helsinki has implemented changes on roughly 150 residential streets to facilitate pedestrian traffic. These changes were carried out on streets on which street parking significantly hinders the clearing of snow and anti-slippage measures on pavements. Additionally, 190 electric scooter parking spots were reserved for snow storage in the city centre and the southern parts of the urban centre.

We took measures to make winter cycling and pedestrian traffic easier by expanding the enhanced winter maintenance routes for winter 2023–2024. The routes now cover approximately 105 kilometres of cycling and pedestrian routes. This winter, stricter quality criteria have been applied in Herttoniemi and Mellunkylä. Among other things, contractors are compelled to ride a bicycle on the routes they have maintained to verify the quality of their work. The same criteria will also be applied to other contract areas upon contract renewal.

“The city residents’ feedback is very important to us. We continuously develop our operations, and the survey results will confirm if we are on the right path. It is also interesting to see if any perspectives that we haven’t been able to consider will emerge. Feedback from both the feedback channel and the survey are considered, even though we cannot react to everything right away”, says street area maintenance team leader Tarja Myller from Helsinki’s Urban Environment Division. 

Winter street maintenance in Helsinki

The streets of Helsinki are always cleared according to predefined maintenance classes. The work has been prioritised, with the main roads, public transport streets, and main pedestrian and cycling routes ploughed first. Residential streets are ploughed next.

The City is responsible for the winter maintenance of streets, cycling lanes and pavements in suburban areas as well as the clearing of snow piles from streets. In the urban centre, winter maintenance of the pavements as well as disposal of cleared snow are the responsibility of the property owners.

The City maintains approximately 1,200 kilometres of vehicle traffic streets and roads and about 2,500 kilometres of cycling and pedestrian routes.