Developing the urban areas of the old municipal centres that were merged with the city is important for the City of Mikkeli, and modern data connections are a fundamental part of the process. Consequently, significant village network projects have been completed in Anttola, Haukivuori, Ristiina and Suomenniemi as well as in the district of Otava in central Mikkeli.
Winner of the municipal category of the Joint Construction Project of the Year 2019!
It all started with the Government’s Broadband for All project, the primary objective of which was to support the construction of broadband connections in sparsely populated areas. The building of broadband networks in urban areas was eligible for support under the criteria of the ELY Centres’ Rural Development Programme for Mainland Finland, and this enabled the Village network project to provide fast data connections in the areas mentioned.
The City of Mikkeli put the projects out to tender, and MPY Palvelut Oyj was the telecommunications operator selected to implement them.
Possibilities for joint construction investigated from the start
"Right from the start, we kept a close eye on construction work related to Järvi-Suomen Energia’s plans to build a weatherproof electricity network", Juha Putkonen, Sales Manager at MPY, describes the early stages of the work. "We piggybacked on these projects whenever the schedules and work stages allowed it. This way, the environmental damage of digging the trenches for both the power lines and the fibre optic cable could be minimised.”
MPY was responsible for designing the fibre optic network and coordinating its construction. The actual work was carried out by a network design company co-established earlier by MPY and Järvi-Suomen Energia to promote joint construction. The company is today known by the name of its current owner, Rejlers Finland Oy. Järvi-Suomen Energia managed the joint construction sites, as it had put the contracts out to tender before MPY joined in. This made it possible to share the excavation costs of the jointly constructed sections between the fibre optic and electricity networks. In areas where Järvi-Suomen Energia had already completed its weatherproof power network, MPY constructed the fibre optic network separately.
In joint construction, everybody is a winner
Juha Putkonen emphasises that joint construction is an extremely useful operating method in urban areas, especially for residents.
Project Manager Timo Rissanen, who represented the City of Mikkeli in the project, agrees.
“In joint construction projects of this type, the residents only have to bear with the inconvenience of excavations once, and they get both a reliable electricity network and fast data connections. This obviously is an advantage for the city, too.”
Rissanen also says he has been pleased to note how cooperation between the operators has improved over the decades. Previously, everyone only minded their own schedules and laid one cable at a time in the ground, whereas today the projects are synchronised, and operators come on board even if they do not have an acute need for it at that very moment.
MPY Palvelut thus strives to combine its fibre optic installation works as far as possible with such projects as district heating network expansion and excavations for street lighting systems. The more hardware you can get in the same trench, the better it is for everyone concerned.
Doing things together brings some cost savings to the parties, but according to Juha Putkonen, it is the residents who reap the greatest benefits. The unavoidable nuisance caused by excavations can be minimised when as many underground cables as possible can be laid at the same time.
“Minimising nuisance to the residents is definitely the greatest benefit of joint construction.”
Communication and coordination are crucial for success
Especially when dealing with parties such as a network operator and a telecommunications company, who have completely different cycles and rhythms of operation, the coordination of works and schedules adds to the workload.
"The electricity company can make the plans for its infrastructure improvement projects quite independently", says Juha Putkonen. “The cycles of broadband and fibre optic projects are considerably faster and depend on subscription sales.”
There is a clear social demand for developing the joint construction process and investing in it. When everyone keeps the big picture clear in their minds and aims for a common goal, this is a good starting point for achieving shared benefits.
Joint construction is already the standard in Mikkeli
The City of Mikkeli has been aware of the potential of joint construction for some time. Timo Rissanen explains that especially on newbuilding sites, joint construction has been the rule rather than an exception for an extended period.
“When building infrastructure for new residential areas, the city strives for joint construction whenever possible. Telecommunication and electricity networks, water mains and district heating pipes are all installed in the same trench.”
It is largely a question of coordination and synchronisation, and when the benefits are undisputable for all parties, solutions tend to be easy to find. Timo Rissanen says that joint construction already is an established and mainstream operating model in Mikkeli, with little possibility of returning to the way things were.
And so the Village network project in Mikkeli was also brought to a conclusion; for three years, it focused on bringing the best possible overall solution to the residents in each area. In summer 2019, the final landscaping work was completed and any new subscribers who turned up in the course of the project were connected to the network, and now everything is finished and ready for the residents to use.
Smiling comes easy at the finish line, but there is one particular issue Juha Putkonen would like to be clarified with a view to any future joint construction projects.
“Especially in sparsely populated areas where commercial potential is small anyway, national permit procedures have proven cumbersome at times. In the planning stage, resources are eaten up by investigations that seem little more than a formality, and if the network is to be extended as new subscribers come along, a separate permit procedure is required. This means that the cost pressure on each new subscription is sometimes unreasonable.”
Reliable data connections with extensive coverage that are as fast as possible are a national competitive advantage recognised at government level and a clear policy objective. It is another reason why all resources, including society's, should be targeted at this goal.
Parties involved in the project
- The city of Mikkeli
- Järvi-Suomen Energia Oy
- Etelä-Savon Energia Oy
- Rejlers Oy