Fencing on Finland-Russia border about to complete but behind 1 month schedule

The construction of the fence and the installation of electric and surveillance systems along Russian border with Finland is in progress but the pilot fence has fallen somewhat behind the target schedule, said Finnish Border Guard in a press release on Wednesday.

The initial target was to have the pilot fence completed by the end of June, but now the target has been delayed by one month and the barrier fence is expected to be ready for operational use in August.

The basic road structure of building, however, has been completed.

“Extensive development of solutions constitutes an integral part of any piloting process, and it takes more time than implementing ready-made detailed plans. One of the objectives was also to find out where the bottlenecks in scheduling lie, so the schedule set for the phase was extremely tight to begin with. More important than keeping the very tight schedule set for the phase is that we can gather enough experience for continuing the project and create functional solutions for implementing the later phases,” said Ismo Kurki, Project Manager from the Technical Division of the Border Guard Headquarters.

The ongoing construction of the pilot of the eastern border barrier fence in Pelkola, Imatra, is an important phase in the project’s progress.

The approximately three kilometres long pilot fence located nearby Imatra’s border crossing point is estimated to be complete in summer.

“When completed, the barrier fence will meet the requirements set for the duties of the Finnish Border Guard. The technical surveillance system will alert of any persons in the barrier fence area. The fence will prevent any immediate penetration, crossing or underpassing, and slow down and guide people's movement as originally planned. The road to be built will enable the Border Guard to move faster than before in the border area and to react to potential border incidents,” said Lieutenant Colonel Jukka Lukkari, Deputy Commander of the Southeast Finland Border Guard District.

The pilot phase is important for the purposes of assessing and establishing the cost level. Costs arise not only from actual construction but also from material procurement, electricity and telecommunications connections, project management and planning, as well as compensations to be paid to landowners.

In Lapland, in the area around the Salla border crossing point, the Border Guard will test a pontoon road solution made of concrete designed for crossing wetlands in August-November 2023.

The competitive tendering for fence material delivery, earthmoving contract and concrete pontoon delivery regarding this part of the project is underway. Landowners in the Salla target area have been contacted about the construction of the barrier fence.

The procurement process for finding a provider of project management services for the PRIO 1 stage of the barrier fence project has also been launched.

A call for tenders will be sent to companies that have announced their interest in participating and meet the requirements set. The project management to be selected will implement the contracting of the PRIO 1 phase of the barrier fence project and the planning of the PRIO 2 phase.

In April, Finland has started construction of fence along eastern border with Russia.

In November 2022, the government in its budget proposal for 2023 proposed EUR 139 million in funding for the implementation of the most important target areas of the eastern border barrier fence.

Earlier in October, 2022, a proposal to build a fence along parts of Finland's border with Russia received wide support from parties in the Parliament.