The Finnish National Road Administration, Finnra, is the public body managing the governmental 78000 km road network of Finland. There has been continuous rationalization in Finnra for almost two decades. Due to increased efficiency and continuous reduction of administrative and overhead costs, the number of own staff has diminished from 18 000 to 7000 in two decades. Gradually it became more and more obvious that most of the rational possibilities to enhance efficiency, quality of service and economy as a public administration were fully utilized. The remaining tool left behind for additional development was the opening of road management to market forces. The highway administration will be separated from the technical operations. There will be a Road Administration under the Ministry of Transport and Communications, responsible for long term network planning, fluency of traffic, cost efficiency of traffic management and for the level of services provided to the road users. All the units currently providing road design, construction and maintenance services as an in-house activity will form a Finnish Road Corporation. This public enterprise will report to the Ministry of Transport and Communications. It will have a board nominated by the Cabinet. All Finnra's production personnel, about 5200 persons, will be transferred with their current terms of employment to the enterprise. Both the Road Administration and the Finnish Road Corporation will have regional units covering the whole country. The administrative units will mainly be involved in contract supervision and customer services. The regional units of the Road Corporation will tender for and manage contracts. In the Road Corporation there will be four different business areas: - Consulting services including design, construction management and other traffic management services. - Contract services including road and bridge construction and maintenance. - Management of 62 road ferries - Export services and domestic special projects. (A)
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