In a meeting held on 10 December 2025, the Helsinki City Council approved the local detailed plan for the harbour tunnel with 49 votes in favour, 36 against. With this decision, the project enters the next phase, where detailed planning and design starts. Construction of the tunnel is expected to start in 2028.

“I would like to thank the councillors for familiarising themselves with the overall project and understanding the importance of the tunnel for the city and for safeguarding the Port’s operating conditions. It’s great to see this project, which has been under preparation for years, now move towards implementation,” says Ville Haapasaari, CEO of the Port of Helsinki.

The West Harbour is the most important harbour in Helsinki in terms of economic impact and the busiest passenger harbour in Finland. Around 7.5 million passengers use the Helsinki–Tallinn route every year, with 5.5 million of them already passing through the West Harbour. Additionally, around 300,000 trucks and almost one million cars pass through the West Harbour every year.

The harbour tunnel is an integral part of the redesign of Helsinki’s port operations, which the City Council already decided on back in 2021, based on extensive studies. The aim is that, by the early 2030s, all ships headed to Tallinn will depart from the West Harbour and all ships headed to Stockholm will depart from Katajanokka. The South Harbour will be largely freed up for use by Helsinki residents, with the only port operations remaining there being some international cruise traffic.

Moving Tallinn traffic from Katajanokka to the West Harbour will significantly increase traffic volumes in the area. After the discontinuation of liner traffic to the South Harbour and the transfer of Tallinn traffic from Katajanokka to the West Harbour, liner traffic, which is currently divided between three harbours, will be handled by two harbours.

The harbour traffic being transferred over from Katajanokka alone will bring around 2 million passengers, an estimated 60,000 heavy vehicles and 300,000 cars to the West Harbour every year. On top of this, Tallinn traffic is expected to increase significantly in the long term. The tunnel will serve the increasing traffic between Helsinki and Tallinn and allow port operations to continue to grow far into the future.

The construction of the harbour tunnel will be carried out using the alliance model. In this model, the client, designers and builders form a single team that will make all key decisions together based on openness and shared goals. With the approval of the local detailed plan, the project enters the alliance development phase, which involves drawing up a detailed implementation plan, determining the target cost and agreeing on an incentive scheme for the project.

After the development phase, the Port of Helsinki will make a separate investment decision on in 2027. Construction of the tunnel is expected to start in 2028.

For more information:

Ville Haapasaari
CEO
tel. +358 40 709 8798
ville.haapasaari(a)portofhelsinki.fi

Pekka Hellström
VP Technical Services
tel. +358 40 334 5804
pekka.hellstrom(a)portofhelsinki.fi