The Finnish Transport Agency along with the City of Tampere and a Lemminkäinen-led consortium have signed an alliance agreement to develop the first stage of the VT12 Tampere tunnel project.

The VT12 Tampere tunnel project will link Tampereen Rantaväylä to a tunnel running between Santalahti and Naistenlahti to reduce traffic congestion and aid vehicle movement on the VT12 Tampereen Rantaväylä.

A €185m ($227.2m) order authorisation has been granted for the tunnel project contract, which will also provide the authorities with better control over the negative effects of traffic.

The consortium, including Lemminkäinen, A-Insinöörit Suunnittelu and Saanio & Riekkola, will jointly work on the project, which will be divided into development and implementation phases.

The year-long development phase will oversee plans of implementation, target costs and other related goals for the execution of the project.

Construction, which is expected to start in August 2013, will be carried out under the new alliance model, based on a joint agreement between the parties on the target costs, joint risk provision and other key objectives.

The Finnish Transport Agency will act as the customer’s representative during the project.