Landscape and cultural environment

Kehä IV project

Kehä IV is a new ring road planned for the capital region. The road would run from trunk road 4 (Lahdenväylä) to main road 45 (Tuusulanväylä) along the route of the current regional road 152 (Kulomäentie) and, from there, towards trunk road 3 (Hämeenlinnanväylä) on the north side of Helsinki-Vantaa Airport. In Tuusula, Kehä IV is linked to the plans for the Focus dis-trict to the north of the airport.

The basis for the project is the expan-sion of regional road 152 to 2+2 lanes.

The road would be extended to Katri-inantie, passing the airport on the north side, and further to Hämeenlinnanväylä (trunk road 3). An environmental impact assessment for the project was complet-ed in 1995–1996.

Kehä IV is a project initiated by the Uusimaa road district. In the transport system draft for 2007 prepared by the Helsinki Metropolitan Area Council (YTV), Kehä IV is registered as a project to be completed between the years 2016 and 2030. In the current transport system

plan from 2002, the eastern part of Kehä IV (current regional road 152) has been scheduled for completion in 2020–2029 and the western part from Tuusulanväylä to Hämeenlinnanväylä after 2030. [https://

fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keh%C3%A4_IV]

5.4 Landscape and cultural environment

According to the national landscape and region distribution (Maisema-alueryhmän mietintö I, YM 1992), the project area is located in what is known as South-ern shorelands, and further in SouthSouth-ern farmlands and on the coast of the Gulf of Finland. Figure 5-26 shows the bounda-ry between Southern farmlands and the coast of the Gulf of Finland (landscape region distribution). In practical terms, however, the sections of the project al-ternatives located in Southern farmlands are part of an urban community struc-ture, and the changes in landscape will occur in an urban space. The exception to this is the freight terminal proposed in alternative 2 that is located in a typical understated landscape of the Southern farmlands.

The Helsinki-Uusimaa Regional Coun-cil’s analysis “Missä maat on mainiom-mat” (Helsinki-Uusimaa Regional Council 2012, updated 2016) specifies the na-tional landscape region distribution to a regional level. According to the analysis, the service connection for project alter-natives ALT1a and ALT1b (Koirasaari) is located in the coastal archipelago be-tween Porkkala and Sipoo, that is, the central coast of Uusimaa. According to the analysis, the area has wide, open sea areas and understated, discontinued shorelines. The area is characterised by small, rocky islands and islets with steep shorelines, on the one hand, and barren

113 capes with glaciated rocks, on the other

hand. There is a very narrow archipela-go zone in front of Helsinki. South of the coastal archipelago between Porkkala and Sipoo is the open sea, where the ar-tificial islands for alternatives ALT1a and ALT1b (Ulkomatala and Hramtsow shoal) and the service connection for alterna-tive ALT2 (Uppoluoto) are located.

The urban landscape of Otakeila (al-ternatives ALT1a and ALT1b) is charac-terised by the closeness of the sea, the office blocks in Keilaniemi, the major roads (Länsiväylä, Kehä I), the sensitive and understated scenery of the Tapiola garden district, and the unique, architec-turally valuable Otaniemi campus area and its related blocks of residential and office buildings.

The urban landscape of the airport district (all alternatives) is currently char-acterised by large, hall-like buildings and structures related to terminal operation.

With the construction of Aviapolis, the district is developing towards a more ur-ban direction.

The cityscape of the centre of Helsinki (ALT2) has stabilised and, therefore, any changes in cityscape will be minor. Pasi-la (ALT2), on the other hand, is currently experiencing a major shift in its cityscape (Central Pasila), which will change the identity of the area and its role within the city structure in the coming years. This will increase the tolerance to change of the area’s cityscape.

The freight terminal proposed in alter-native ALT2 is located at the border of

the municipalities of Vantaa and Tuusu-la, in an understated rural landscape.

According to “Missä maat on mainioim-mat” (Helsinki-Uusimaa Regional Council 2012, updated 2016) the area is part of the Central Uusimaa farmlands, charac-terised by the clay soil of the river basins and the sand and gravel formations at their boundaries.

Locations of special value in terms of landscape and cultural environment Southern Uusimaa and the coast and archipelago near Uusimaa have a large number of locations that are valuable in terms of landscape and the cultural en-vironment. Most of them are related to structures constructed during World War I. The valuable constructed cultural envi-ronment locations in the project’s area of landscape impact (RKY 2009) include the fortifications constructed on the islands during World War I and the fortifications on the mainland side. Santahamina and Suomenlinna are also a part of this com-plex related to the history of defence.

The inner city of Helsinki has several RKY 2009 locations. There are also RKY 2009 locations in Lauttasaari and in the re-gion of Otaniemi and Tapiola. The area of landscape impact also contains the sum-mer villa districts built along the steam ship routes – Soukanniemi, Tallholma, Pentala and Suvisaaristo. Suomenlinna and parts of the Vantaa river basin are nationally valuable landscape areas with-in the project’s area of landscape impact (Maisematyöryhmän mietintö 1995). The

inventory update of the national com-mittee on landscape protection (2016) proposes maritime Helsinki as a new na-tionally valuable landscape area; it is cur-rently classified as regionally valuable.

The regionally valuable landscape and/

or cultural environment areas expand and supplement the nationally valuable areas. Figure 5-26 shows that substantial parts of the archipelago of Helsinki and, to a large extent, Espoo are at least re-gionally significant in terms of landscape or cultural environment. The values also apply fairly broadly to sea areas.

The area of landscape impact has a very large number of fixed relics (Figure 5-26), of which most are structures relat-ed to fortifications from World War I.

Underwater relics

Underwater relics include wrecks and wreck sections that can be assumed to have been submerged for more than one hundred years, as well as other aban-doned underwater structures from the past. Cultural heritage objects include later wrecks, such as wrecks from World War II, for example. Construction pro-jects in the open sea could mainly affect wrecks. There are no known underwater relics near the planned artificial islands or other hydraulic engineering work. How-ever, comprehensive information regard-ing the underwater cultural heritage is not available, since studies concerning it have only been carried out in limited areas in relation to zoning and construc-tion projects in both Helsinki and Espoo.

114

Figure 5-26. Significant areas and objects in terms of the landscape and cultural environment.

115 There may be several currently unknown

underwater cultural heritage objects off the coast of Helsinki and Espoo, since the shores of Uusimaa have been inhabited for a long time and have, for centuries, been a place for seafaring, fishing and other sources of livelihood. Harbours and docks have operated there, for example.

Out of all municipalities in Finland, Hel-sinki currently has the highest number of known underwater objects: 214, of which 63 have been estimated to be relics. 33 underwater objects are known in Espoo, of which 9 are relics.

The underwater relics within the area of landscape impact are relics. Figure 5-26 shows that no known wrecks are located near the planned artificial islands or service connections. However, in or-der to ensure this, detailed unor-derwater archaeological surveys are required once the exact location of the artificial islands has been designed.