Kehä III

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Kehä III

Length:	50 km (31 mi)
Formed:	1962-1972
Counties:	Kirkkonummi, Espoo, Vantaa, and Helsinki
Major cities:	Helsinki

Kehä III (Swedish: Ring III) is an important highway in southern Finland. It is the outermost of the three beltways in the Helsinki region, and the first one to be built. It lies within four municipalities - Kirkkonummi, Espoo, Vantaa, and Helsinki. An arch in shape, the road is about 50 km long, of which only a fraction within the borders of the capital, Helsinki.

The work on Kehä III started in 1962, on the base of an existing road. The construction was finished in 1972, albeit the road being only two lanes wide. Even though most of Kehä III has been expanded to at least two lanes per direction, the westernmost part is still largely of a one-lane type.

In recent years, Kehä III has gone through an extensive renovation on its busiest stretch in Vantaa, where several interchanges have been built or improved, and lanes added. Industrial development along the road has introduced higher volumes of heavy traffic.

[edit] History

Kehä III in Vantaa, looking west.

The beginning was constructed between 1962 and 1964 from Bemböle to Västersundom and the continuation to Jorvas was completed in 1965. Originally, each road was two lanes wide. The amount of traffic grew considerably over time and as a result the original intersections with Helsinki's exit roads became dangerous. Therefore, all intersections with the city exits had been rebuilt as merging loops by the beginning of the 1970s. The road has undergone almost continual modification and widening throughout its existence as traffic has increased in the region.

In the mid-1970s, the road between Tikkurila and Helsinki-Vantaa Airport was renovated and 10 years later the road was expanded to four lanes up to Vihdintie. At the end of the 1980s, the road was extended to Muurala and then once again one kilometer farther to the west. This same stretch was rebuilt shortly afterwards when it was expanded to four lanes up through Gumböle during the 1990s. Throughout the 1980s, stretches of Kehä III were completed to the Lahti motorway and in the 1990s to the Porvoo motorway. The last stretches of Kehä III were completed in 2006 and 2007 to Vuosaari port. At the start of 2000s major improvements were made to the heavily used stretch from Tikkurila to Helsinki-Vantaa Airport: the road was widened to 6 lanes and Tuusula motorway's intersection was rebuilt as a large system connection.

When the road was originally built, it was simply called the Ring road, but the planning of the other two major roads caused confusion. Therefore it was called Kehä III (Ring III) from the 1970s onward.