Tampere Central Wastewater Treatment Plant nearing completion – “An honor to be part of a major and impressive project”

The major joint project of the municipalities in the Tampere region — a centralized wastewater treatment plant — is in its final stages. The massive €380 million investment has now moved into the testing phase. In mid-September, the first wastewater will be directed for treatment at Sulkavuori.

From this point, treated wastewater is directed from the Sulkavuori Central Wastewater Treatment Plant into the discharge tunnel and towards Lake Pyhäjärvi. (Photo: Annamaria Palsi-Ikonen)

The new central treatment plant is designed to serve a population of 360,000. Even as the population in the Tampere region — and  the volume of wastewater — continues to grow, the environmental load on Lake Pyhäjärvi and the downstream waterways will be reduced.

“It’s an honor to be involved in such a major and impressive project. The old treatment plants were reaching the end of their life cycle. The new one was built deep within bedrock, where the temperature remains more stable than outdoors. This also eliminates odor nuisances caused by the old plant, which was located near residential areas,” explains Iiro Vahala, Sales Manager at Finnchain.

Construction in Sulkavuori began in 2018. In addition to the central treatment plant itself, the project included more than 12 kilometers of transfer sewers and two wastewater pumping stations.

For the Sulkavuori project, Finnchain supplied four scraper systems for sand separation basins, eight scraper systems for primary sedimentation tanks, and sixteen scraper systems for secondary sedimentation tanks. The order also included a total of 24 surface scum removal pipes.

Many treatment plants, built in the 1960s and 1970s, still operate throughout the Nordic countries — which means new opportunities for Finnchain.

“Recognition and quality are our selling points. I’ve even joked that our equipment works and lasts almost too well from a sales perspective,” says Vahala.