Grants for private roads

Apply for a maintenance grant on a date to be specified, in accordance with the instructions given.

Submit the application documents for the road grant to the municipality by the end of the application period for the private road grant. Late or incomplete documents will not be taken into consideration

For the obtainment of grants is needed that

1. a road management association has been established for the road
2. information about the road management association and the road are up-to-date in the private road register of the National Land Survey of Finland and in the information system Digiroad of the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency.

The following requirements apply to private roads eligible for the grant:

• The total length of the road must be at least 0.4 km and it must be drivable by car.
• There must be at least one permanently inhabited household within the road’s area of influence.
• The road must be a private road as defined by the Private Roads Act, meaning that at least two properties must have road access rights to it.
• A road association must have been established for managing the road’s affairs, and it must be duly organized.

When applying for the grant, the applicant must also provide the date of the road association’s most recent annual meeting. The municipal official handling the applications can check information provided by the road association on a spot-check basis and request them separately if necessary.

The municipality pays the grant according to existing allocation principles using a calculated method. The kilometer-based maintenance costs used to determine private road maintenance expenses are based on four maintenance classes and standard levels.

When determining the maintenance class, all traffic-generating factors within the road’s area of influence, as well as the maintenance needs required by that traffic, are taken into account.

The maintenance classification of private roads is carried out by scoring traffic-generating activities within the road’s area of influence according to specified scoring criteria.

A grant application for building, repairing and maintaining a private road may be submitted to the municipality. The municipality may decide that it will assume responsibility for maintaining a private road fully or partly. Grants are also available from central government funds.

If the central government or the municipality assist the road management association in maintaining the road, the road must be accessible for public use.