Highway collapse repairs in Keuruu near completion

A year after a section of Highway 23 collapsed in Keuruu, Finland, repair work on the site and a nearby embankment continues, Yle reports.

The main collapse site has been fully repaired, with the final pavement layer and road markings completed this spring and early summer. Work on stabilizing the adjacent embankment to the west of the collapse is now being finalized.

Janne Jaatinen, project manager at the Central Finland Vitality Center, said investigations revealed the embankment’s stability was compromised, prompting reinforcement. Measurements confirm the embankment has stopped settling, allowing crews to finish the slopes by replacing surface soil with coarser materials.

The repair cost has exceeded €1 million, with final figures to be confirmed in August after the project’s acceptance inspection.

The collapse on July 15, 2025, occurred during subsurface drilling to assess stability risks. The cause was poor-quality, fine-grained soil used in the embankment, built in the 1970s. Traffic was diverted for over three months.

Jaatinen noted that while some collapses, like a recent one in Somero caused by water erosion, are predictable, others—such as Keuruu’s—stem from long-term material degradation. The incident may help identify similar risks in other road structures.