The objective of the project was to develop site planning documentation which will provide necessary conditions for land reservation for the purpose of construction of the perspective road to BCP Brusnichnoye. Existence of the completed site planning documentation and reserved land is a major precondition for receiving federal financing for technical design and construction of the road.

The existing road to BCP Brusnichnoye that is leased out by Finland up to 2062 was constructed in 1960s as a service road for maintaining Saimaa Сanal. Until now, the road has never been reconstructed with respect to expansion of carriageway or changes in route. Technical parameters of the road do not meet the requirements for current traffic density, which in its turn negatively influences road capacity and safety.

Parameters of the existing road do not match the requirements of international transport route. However, the route itself was in high demand since it is integrated in ninth Trans- European corridor, international transport corridor “North-South” and international road corridor “Europe – Western China”.

The process of development of site planning documantation implied several stages:
1) Engineering investigations
2) Developing site planning documentation (territory-planning project, territory demarcation project, preparation of list of land plots and their cadastral numbers, preparation of scheme of land plots layout).
3) Approval of the documantation by repsective authorities.

As of the end of 2021 the first stage of project implementation was successfuly done and engineering investigations were carried out including Geodesic investigations, Geological investigations, Hydro-meteorological investigations and ecological investigation.
In 2022  based on the results of enginnering investigations Directorate continued project works regarding site planning documentation developement. The project had been implemented until the European Commisison made the decision to suspend all project works in March 2022.

At the time of project suspension, the following second stage work were performed:

1.Requests were formed and sent to the executive bodies of state and municipal authorities, balance holders of existing engineering networks in order to provide initial data for the preparation of DPT, including obtaining technical requirements and conditions from networks owners. The analysis of the received initial data was carried out.

2. Received initial data on real estate objects (land plots) in the form of extracts from the Unified State Register of Real Estate, cadastral plans of the territory.

3. An analysis of the materials of the Forestry Regulations of the North-Western Forestry of the Leningrad Region was carried out, graphic materials were prepared showing the boundaries of forestries, district forestries, forest quarters, forest taxation allotments on the design area.

4. A transport and economic research has been prepared, including an analysis of the socio-economic characteristics of the attraction zone, a forecast of socio-economic development, a survey of the existing traffic intensity and the calculation of the prospective traffic intensity and the load level of the road network.

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At the beginning of the project, there was done necessary studies to guide future actions. The studies gave us an idea of the market, the demand situation and the interest in opening up cruise traffic from Finland to Russia. In both studies (made in Finland and Russia), the results showed that there is interest and potential to open sea routes from Kotka to St. Petersburg and Vyborg. The coherent history of the area was highlighted in the studies as an interesting and useful feature.It was focused on specific target groups (pensioners couples, city-travellers and families). The number of destinations/product packages was limited to three per city, one product for each target group. The idea was to highlight the cities’, passenger ports and the cities themselves through the packages.

After the outbreak of war, were focused the project measures only on the east coast of Finland. Attracting shipowners to the region was challenging. Shipowners make careful calculations about where to place their vessels. In cooperation with local actors/entrepreneurs, were focused on developing island products and related service/product packages. There were supported operators with workshops and also highlighted the archipelago as a whole through digital channels. As a result of these measures, operators/entrepreneurs have created 11 new/processed service products. The range of products targeted both individual consumers and groups.

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The main objectives of the CB-Safe project were to enhance the skills, safety knowledge, and safety attitudes of individuals crossing the border, produce safety information material, create a virtual learning platform for rescue services, and deepen the cooperation between the Finnish authorities in the border area.

One goal was to create a virtual training platform for rescue services. The platform was named VR-HYPO (virtual training environment for operational decision-making of rescue services). The platform simulates risk and accident situations in the Saimaa canal and its surroundings. The virtual training environment is based on accident scripts, where decision-making related to risk and accident situations and the use of resources can be practiced with the help of gamification. The goal was to modernize the performance management of the rescue departments and pilot the functionality of the virtual training environment.

The implementation of the VR game environment was done with the Unity 3D game engine and the Photon PUN 2 and Photon Voice 2 programs were chosen for the implementation of the multiplayer environment. This software enabled a multi-game environment where rescue personnel working at different fire stations can participate in a training simulation using a VR-compatible computer and VR glasses. . It was especially important to make the rescue personnel’s actions correspond to the real situation. For example, communication is mainly done by talking, using the Virve virtual phone.

The virtual platform is used to develop the performance and competence of rescue authorities. From the point of view of society, the results can be seen in the improvement of risk management and safety in the environments of emergency services. The virtual platform enables training in complex situations, for example, the Saimaa canal, where training opportunities are otherwise limited, and the combined result of this is enhanced service response in demanding accident situations. A similar digital learning platform has not been created before. The possibilities for the further development of the virtual learning platform in the rescue industry are limitless.

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The plans for the new passenger terminal in the Kotkan Kantasatama harbour were finalized and officially approved by the users in May 2021, and the terminal building was completed in April 2022.

The objective of the project was to develop transport infrastructure of the Port of HaminaKotka in the Kotkan Kantasatama harbour. Before the implementation of the project, there were no existing facilities for passenger traffic at the Port of HaminaKotka. In the project, capacity for regular year-round ferry traffic and services to cruise and ferry vessels and their passengers were built. The Port of HaminaKotka sustainably utilized the existing facilities as much as possible, and the new terminal was constructed within an old warehouse, the other parts of which will be utilized by the City of Kotka, XAMK, and different authorities.

Regular passenger traffic requires facilities for the Customs and the Border Guard in the terminal for the mandatory controls and services. The investments implemented by the project ensure reliable and timely control and security of travelers and vehicles by introducing state-of-the-art control and monitoring technologies of Border Guard and Customs.

In addition to the passenger terminal and its control facilities, the investments in the Kantasatama harbour included traffic arrangements both within and outside of the port area, as well as wastewater reception facilities for the vessels calling the harbour. The vessels can leave all of their wastewaters in the harbour, from where they will be directly led to the municipal sewage system and treatment facility via a new connecting pipeline.

The capacity building component of the project aimed to provide the Finnish project partners the necessary technical, organizational, and managerial skills for efficient operations of the new facilities built within the project. The Passenger Port of St. Petersburg has an existing passenger terminal in the Programme area and therefore acted as a counterpart in the project. They provided training for the personnel of LP related to starting passenger traffic operations. The project partners shared knowledge and best practices of smooth border-crossing.

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The project had a specific objective to develop the transshipment communications between the two countries for the sake of mutual business, trade, logistic and tourism development through improvement of Russian and Finnish sea port infrastructure in the target project areas to be capable of servicing cargo and passenger flows with special attention given to new border-crossing check points infrastructure.

To meet the set objective, the partners implemented the complex of engineering and construction works and capacity building actions that should allow utilizing the Passenger Seaport St. Petersburg Checkpoint and the marine terminal infrastructure also for regular acceptance of cargo transport (Euro trailers and euro tents) and goods coming by ferries and arranged a series of webinars for the employees of the Marine Façade PLC to raise their awareness and operational capacities to run the new created infrastructure for cargo transportation.

As planned, the main output of the project became a reconstructed marine permanent multilateral Russian Federation State border checkpoint at the Sea Port Passenger port St. Petersburg, including 15 objects for accepting passengers and cargo vehicles and performing corresponding customs, security and veterinary control for passengers, loads and motor vehicles.

The new checkpoint was constructed and equipped according to the most up-to-date technical and construction standards with the high level of adaptation of the facilities to the modern environmental requirements; needs of passengers with limited abilities were also taken into account.

The correspondence of the new facilities to the claimed planning and design solutions was confirmed by Technological outlay of organizing the process of crossing the Russian state border by physical persons, motor vehicles, loads, goods and animals in the marine cargo-passenger permanent multilateral point of crossing the Russian state border in the Sea Port Passenger port of St. Petersburg and the conclusion of the Interdepartmental commission on 30.04.2021.

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The main objective of project was to promote safe, secure, smooth and efficient border-crossing and easy mobility by bicycle. A research work “Development of a comprehensive approach to development of cycling in border regions” was published. A study of safety issues at border crossing points (including safety assessment of pedestrian and cycling routes at border crossing points Vaalimaa, Nuijamaa and Imatra) was carried out.

A concept of cycle tourism development on the near border areas of Russia and Finland was developed.  Guidebooks of cycling addressed to cyclists were published. Project infrastructure component included construction of the cycle path in Svetogorsk and equipment of the BCP “Svetogorsk” with elements of cycling infrastructure (road marking, bike parking lots, signs). Besides the cycle path, the works included repair of bridges, organization of a railway crossing for cyclists and installation of streetlights. Project carried out awareness raising activities to increase the cycling safety.

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