From Finland, the project was implemented by the municipality of Rautjärvi and the South Karelia Foundation for Recreation Areas Ekvas. When making the master plan, not a very large number of companies and actors were involved in the work yet. As far as dissemination is concerned, it is necessary to be even more active in reaching out to existing and potential new entrepreneurs.
The old Kangaskoski hydropower plant owned by Ekvas was taken out of use during the project as the first hydro power plant on the Finnish side of the Hiitolanjoki River. A museum is being planned for hydro power plant, so that the culturally and industrially historically valuable building gets a new life and the tourism companies in the area can add content to their tourism products. Proper plans are needed for that. In the museum plan, Granlund Saimaa Oy, as a purchasing service, has now completed the drawings of the various spaces and the plans for their use, as well as the grandstand and technology, as well as the facade. The plan also includes cost estimates to allow the implementation to apply for funding from different sources after the RivTimes project. The largest work package and cost item in the entire project was the demolition of the Kangaskoski dam and the restoration of the rapids. The dam was the first to be demolitioned on the Finnish side of the Hiitolanjoki River, and it is known that demolitions of the same scale had not been carried out anywhere else in Finland before.
Kangaskoski has therefore acted as a pilot and a very successful model for many other rivers and rapids in Finland and around the world. Oteran Oy was responsible for the practical implementation, which kept to the schedule nicely, and the result has attracted a lot of admiration and praise. The dam was dismantled without explosions, unlike in many other countries. In this way, we have been as gentle as possible to natural ecosystems and have been able to better manage the sediments accumulated at the bottom of the river. The costs of dismantling rose considerably from the estimates in the planning phase, and the extra costs were left to be paid by Ekvas.
The materials can be found here: RivTimes
View this project in keep.eu
