ACCESSIBILITY

The impressive Kuopion Portti is rising as the new landmark of the city right next to the railway station in the city centre. Kuopion Portti forms a modern business hub with a travel centre, complete with high-rise buildings, squares and pedestrian and bicycle ways.

Kuopion Portti offers unique opportunities in terms of both living and entrepreneurship. In addition to housing, the buildings contain versatile business and commercial premises as well as care and wellness services. There is a total of 50,000 floor square metres of space available for various activities. Kuopion Portti is virtually carbon neutral; it has geothermal heating and utilizes solar panels for lighting.

Kuopion Portti is constructed in three stages between 2018–2023. Stage A was completed on 30 January 2020, and the housing company Asunto Oy Kuopion Aseman Torni is now full of hustle and bustle as new residents are moving in. Whether you are looking for a home, a housing investment or business or commercial premises, Kuopion Portti is an excellent choice.

The total cost of the project will be approximately EUR 210–230 million. Construction on the site is carried out jointly by the city of Kuopio, Lapti Oy and VR Group.

The eastern rail will bring fast and reliable connections all across Eastern Finland. Development depends on these connections. Improving transport connections is vitally important to eastern Finland in terms of attracting businesses, daily travel and corporate investments.

A fast rail connection will also lend more flexibility when choosing living and working locations, improving the performance of the labour market. The improvement of rail connections is also an essential precondition for industrial investments, universities and other educational institutions and research institutes in eastern Finland.

A three-hour journey. The eastern rail connection will reduce travel times on rail all over eastern Finland. The goal is a three-hour train service from Kuopio, Joensuu and St. Petersburg to Helsinki. This is made possible by a high-speed fleet with a travel speed of roughly 300 km/h.

The eastern rail connection influences an area that contains 16 cities and 7 provinces, with roughly 930,000 residents, or about one in every six Finns. When including the Helsinki Metropolitan Area, the area of influence is home to about 2.1 million residents, or more than a third of all Finns.

One of the priorities of the vision of Kuopio is to be a centre of influence for one million people. It is important to ensure the development of national road 5, the overall standard of rail connections and the development of the airport as one of the main airports of our country. By improving transport connections, we can also develop a continuous travel-to-work area.

National road 5 is a kind of channel of growth and highly significant for the entire province and eastern Finland as a whole. Its development into a continuous route with a year-round speed limit of 100 km/h will intensify cooperation all along the road between Varkaus and Iisalmi and boost the efficiency of public economy. National road 5 also has a wide impact on the competitive strength of businesses, affecting companies regardless of their operating sector or size.

Safety and predictability are also factors to consider in road traffic. In terms of logistics, it is crucial that the capacity of the road is sufficient and no waiting times are needed. In addition, fuel costs will fall if road quality improves.

Kuopio also considers good digital connections important and strives to become a 5G pioneer.  Development of the new district of Savilahti is part of the city’s preparations for the future. Savilahti Smart City combines working, studying, living, leisure and hobbies.

The top-priority projects of Kuopio, such as Savilahti, facilitate the growth of the city. This district of the future is shaping up to become the most captivating learning and innovation environment in Europe, a complex where 35,000 people work, study and live in a district of smart solutions.

The development of Savilahti increases the attractiveness of Kuopio and creates new companies, business opportunities and jobs.

Some solutions of Smart Savilahti:

• Smart mobility, sustainable urban structure and housing experiments
• New applications for rock caves
• Bus lanes and intersection planning on Savilahdentie and the Savilahti railway stop
• Pedestrian and bicycle accessibility: overpass
• ICT infra solutions