YIT challenges Skanska’s Helsinki tunnel contract over alleged plan snooping

Construction company YIT Infra has asked Finland’s Market Court, which handles disputes involving public procurement and competition, to annul the selection of Skanska for a Helsinki port tunnel contract worth up to 300 million euros, Yle reports.

YIT lost the tender in December 2025. The company claims Skanska gained an advantage because the Port of Helsinki, the contracting authority, poorly organised a workshop held for companies competing for the project.

The dispute centres on a transparent glass wall in the meeting room used by YIT and the presence of Skanska employees during the workshop. In its appeal, YIT claims that a Skanska employee walking past the room could have seen its plans through the glass wall. YIT suspects the man was on his way to smoke.

According to YIT, other Skanska representatives were also present near the workshop area. The company says the corridor outside the meeting rooms offered a direct line of sight into the room and that confidential plans could be seen without deliberately peering inside.

The plans covered topics including foundation construction, the waterfront tunnel, the stages of the work and alternatives for service tunnels. A YIT production manager said in the appeal documents that practically the company’s entire second-stage bid, apart from its fee proposal, was presented at the workshop.

YIT also says Skanska could have learned the composition of its bidding team and how the team worked.

Skanska denies the allegations. The company said, among other things, that the employee accused of snooping does not smoke and therefore had no reason to look for a smoking area near YIT’s meeting room.

The Port of Helsinki also said there was no reason to suspect misconduct. Pekka Hellström, director of technical services at the port, told Yle that the conditions were equal and that the port disagreed with the grounds of the appeal.

The port said Skanska’s bid was the most economically advantageous. The procurement was valued at between 200 million and 300 million euros, with the final cost to be determined when the alliance selected to carry out the work begins.

The tunnel is intended to take heavy traffic from the West Harbour and westbound passenger car traffic underground. One entrance is planned on the edge of Lapinlahti Park.

Another point of dispute is why Skanska representatives were in the same building while YIT was presenting confidential plans. YIT says Skanska arranged a rehearsal for its own workshop on the same day that YIT held its official workshop in another meeting room.

Skanska said it could see from the booking calendar only that another room had been reserved, without knowing who had made the reservation. YIT considers it difficult to believe that Skanska did not know when its workshop was taking place.

Skanska described YIT’s claims and suggestions about the reasons for its employees’ presence as incorrect and inappropriate.

The port knew that staff from both companies were present. Lunch schedules were staggered so that the competing teams would not meet. An independent observer from Infra, an organisation separate from the port, also monitored the workshops and concluded that the conditions were equal. The observer said the bidders did not gain information about each other’s ideas.

In an unusual step, the Market Court visited the location where the alleged snooping took place. The visit examined whether the meeting room’s curtains were open or closed and how much the Post-it notes and papers on the glass wall blocked the view from the corridor.

The Market Court aims to issue its decision by the end of August.