Tailoring a National Winter Maintenance Policy for a Region: A Case from the Häme Region in Finland

National policies are a necessary framework for uniform road management within a country. Regional road management often requires more precise guidelines to account for local conditions. Only nationwide road management policies have been implemented in Finland. In 1999, the Häme region of Finland targeted sites for improving winter maintenance for short sections of road because of local conditions or temporary traffic needs. The new guidelines will be used as a maintenance contract document. Main and secondary roads were included in developing the regionally tailored policy in the Häme region. The use of targeted winter maintenance sites increases costs by about 4.5 percent, while improving winter service to road users. What is new in targeted winter maintenance? Obviously the biggest difference between the old and new practices, or the nationwide and regional policies, is the systematic approach. All road maintenance needs have been analyzed, and the targeted sites have been selected after comprehensive analysis. The workload and costs have been calculated, and the selected sites can be used in contract negotiations.