Softened gravel roads disrupt timber transport and drive layoffs

Autumn rains have softened gravel roads across Finland, disrupting timber harvesting and transport and prompting forestry machinery companies to lay off staff, Yle reports.

Kari Palojärvi, executive director of SKAL Metsä, a transport industry advocacy group, said the disruption can trigger a chain reaction from forest to factory. Suitable logging sites become harder to access as forest roads soften, and weight limits can eventually halt timber deliveries altogether.

“If a timber truck sinks into the road, the road practically has to be rebuilt, and we try to avoid that at all costs,” Palojärvi said.

The Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency says autumn road damage appears to have become more common in recent years. Its expert Jarkko Pirinen said such conditions used to be rare in autumn but now seem to recur year after year.

Vesa Penttinen, a forestry machinery contractor from Hollola, said this autumn has been difficult. Last spring, he had to keep machinery idle for longer than usual. He said the effects vary considerably from year to year.

The worst conditions this autumn have been in Lapland, where weight limits cover more than 100 kilometres of roads. Elsewhere in Finland, restrictions apply to roads spanning tens of kilometres. Vehicles weighing more than 12 tonnes cannot use roads under these limits. The restrictions affect timber and construction-material transport, but not emergency vehicles or essential agricultural transport.

In a survey conducted in August by the machinery contractors’ industry association, 62 per cent of responding member companies said they had laid off staff or planned to do so in the coming months. The association’s sector manager, Juha Saarivuori, said the weak market for the forest industry was one reason, with the road conditions adding to the pressure.

Penttinen said several factors had contributed to layoffs at his company, including fuel costs and weak demand for pulpwood. Palojärvi also said timber transport restrictions can lengthen journeys and increase costs.

Logging volumes this year have been lower than in previous years, according to Eero Poikonen, director for Southern Finland at the forest owners’ association. He said a bird protection directive reduced logging in early summer, while the wet autumn cut into volumes later in the year. The directive bars logging in lush, broadleaf-dominated forests during the bird nesting season.

Poikonen said the maintenance backlog for the road network has grown and the situation appears to worsen year by year. Penttinen said switching to lighter machinery would not be a straightforward solution; instead, companies choose work sites where timber can be felled.