Proposed Helsinki tunnel unlikely to be built

SDP withdraws support from EUR 500 million project

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Social Democrats on the Helsinki City Council dropped a bombshell at Wednesday's meeting, when SDP council group chairman Kai Kalima declared that the party wants to drop plans for the construction of a road tunnel that would pass beneath the centre of the city.
     "Contrary to its habits, the SDP is proposing spending cuts", Kalima said, addressing the body.
     The Social Democrats nevertheless want to proceed with the expansion of the pedestrian zone in the centre.
      Tarja Kantola, deputy chair of the SDP group said that the party's change of heart occurred gradually, on the basis of feedback from the public. The matter was intensely debated among Social Democratic council members on Monday, and on Wednesday shortly before the meeting.
     
The main reason for the decision is economic. The SDP feels that Helsinki cannot afford to build everything that has been planned for the coming years.
     "The tunnel would be too expensive. Couldn't something else be done with the same money?" Kantola asked.
     The way that the party's decision was announced - in a speech during a City Council session - was apparently intended for maximum dramatic effect, with the upcoming municipal elections in mind.
     
The stand taken by the SDP means that the whole project is collapsing. Of the large parties in the council, the Green League has previously come out against the tunnel.
     Smaller parties opposed to the project include the Left Alliance, the Centre Party, the Christian Democrats, and the Finnish Communist Party.
     The Swedish People's Party has called for putting the project on hold, while the True Finns do not see the project as necessary.
     "The city centre tunnel is a very big investment into the wrong mode of transport", said Otto Lehtipuu of the Greens, who was pleased with the SDP's change of heart.
     
The conservative National Coalition Party, the largest party on the council, was bitter at the apparent collapse of their pet project.
     The vice chair of the party's City Council group, Laura Räty, noted that dropping the tunnel was not leading to any savings in any existing budget, because no money has been budgeted for it yet.
     She also said that her party would continue to keep the tunnel in the centre as one of the options for the future in Helsinki.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Alignment of city centre tunnel to be decided soon by City of Helsinki (18.10.2005)

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