Helsinki Port to start renovation of West Harbour next month

The Port of Helsinki is planning significant overhauls at West Harbour located in Jätkäsaari to ensure that the harbour will continue to be able to secure profitable growth in port operations and provide better services for the passenger ferry traffic to Tallinn, said the Port Authority in a press release on Thursday.

The overhauls will begin in December with the demolition of the old Terminal 1 (T1).

The plan is to replace the demolished terminal near the end of the 2020s with a new, modern passenger terminal located above the harbour-side opening of the upcoming harbour tunnel.

The demolition of the old terminal will begin from the disembarkation bridges and canopies. The current estimate is that the demolition of the actual terminal building will begin in March 2025.

The demolition work will be completed in 2025, after which the terminal area will be built into a temporary harbour field before the new terminal is built.

The demolition job will be carried out by Gles Lahti Oy. The detailed work phases and schedule of the demolition work will be established towards the end of the year.

In addition to ship passengers, the new terminal will provide services to the residents of Jätkäsaari.

The planned terminal facilities include restaurants and space for events, among other things. The detailed plan of the new terminal area allows for the construction of a total of 37,000 square metres of floor area and 600 parking spaces.

In addition to the new terminal building, the development work includes a harbour tunnel built from Länsiväylä to West Harbour, which will improve the accessibility of West Harbour and move heavy harbour traffic away from the street network.

Additionally, West Harbour will undergo quay and field arrangements through which the quays will be overhauled and the harbour area will expanded through sea filling. The objective is for the work to be completed in 2032.

Concentrating passenger ferry traffic to Tallinn to West Harbour will strengthen the operating conditions of the harbour important to all of Finland.

The T1 terminal of West Harbour is a building designed by Gunnar Taucher and opened in 1941 to serve as a harbour warehouse. In 1992, it was decided that the building would be transformed into a passenger terminal for ship traffic to Tallinn.

It was opened for this new use on May Day 1995. The T1 terminal became less significant in 2017 as the new T2 terminal was opened at West Harbour.