Nordicum - Real Estate Annual Finland 2011 | Page 38

kumpu metro station simultaneously with the other stations.
In fact, adding a station to
the metro line after the fact –
once the metro is fully operational – would have been very
challenging indeed. Both Kokkinen and Louko agree that realising Niittykumpu in the first
wave of construction makes a
lot of sense.
“There will be funding
available for the construction
from land use agreement of the
area, which means, in essence,
that no additional money from
the City will be required to fund
the station,” says Louko. In addition to the metro station itself,
there will be other costs resulting from setting up the municipal infrastructure.
SRV is going to be the
principal developer of the area,
together with SATO and Varma.
According to initial plans, there
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will be both business and residential buildings in Niittykumpu to the tune of 150,000 gross
square metres.

Underground
Excellence
The Espoo metro is no trivial
matter – in fact, the project is the
biggest single infrastructure undertaking in Finland today. All
and all, the west metro will be
13.9 kilometres in length, comprising two parallel tunnels travelling underground for the entire
length of the track.
In addition to the stations, excavation work will be
carried out for fifteen vertical
shafts designed for emergency exit, pressure equalisation,
ventilation and smoke extraction. Nine work tunnels have
been designed for construction
and maintenance work.

The west metro will also
run as an automatic metro right
from the beginning. The Helsinki Metro will go automatic
even before the completion of
the west metro. The automatic
system will make train traffic
safer and faster, with increased
frequency. To begin with, the
shortest interval between trains
will be 2.5 minutes. Ultimately,
the metro ride from Matinkylä
to Ruoholahti will take 16 minutes.
Once completed, the metro will connect the southern
parts of Espoo to the regional
rail transport system. It is estimated that over 100,000 passengers will use the metro daily and
that around 60,000 will cross the
border between Helsinki and Espoo every day. According to estimates, the busiest stations are
likely to be Tapiola, Matinkylä
and Lauttasaari.

Power of Three
The metro line is also very intriguing in the sense that it will
link together the powerful Tapiola-Otaniemi-Keilaniemi triangle. Each of these areas has
left a permanent mark in history, and together they form the
most potent trio in the country.
Tapiola, for one, is the
legendary “Garden City” and
its commercial centre was a pioneer for urban development in
Finland. Otaniemi boasts the
Finnish version of Silicon Valley, combining higher education
with research and business. Finally, in Keilaniemi one can find
the corporate “dream team” of
the land, with a skyline filled
with proud towers of such internationals hi-tech companies
as Nokia and Kone.
Antti Mäkinen, Project
Manager for the City of Espoo,