Finnish national road 29 (; ) is a

highway A highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It includes not just major roads, but also other public roads and rights of way. In the United States, it is also used as an equivalent term to controlled-access highway, or ...

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

between

Keminmaa Keminmaa (; until 1979 ''Kemin maalaiskunta''; ; ) is a municipality of Finland. It is located near the towns of Kemi and Tornio in the Lapland region. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The popu ...

and

Tornio Tornio (; ; ; ) is a city and municipalities of Finland, municipality in Lapland, Finland. The city forms a cross-border Twin cities, twin city together with Haparanda on the Swedish side. The municipality covers an area of , of which is wat ...

. The road is part of the

European route E8 The European route E8 is a European route that runs between Tromsø, Norway and Turku, Finland. The length of the route is . * E8: Tromsø – Nordkjosbotn – Skibotn – Kilpisjärvi – Kaaresuvanto – Muonio – Tornio – Keminmaa ...

, except for the one kilometer section between the national boundary and the intersection with highway 21, where the road is part of the

European route E4 European route E4 passes from north to south through Sweden from the border with Finland, with a total length of . The Finnish part lies entirely within Tornio in northern Finland, and is only long. The Swedish part traverses most of Sweden e ...

Overview

The highway is long. The eastern 14 kilometer section of the road is part of a

motorway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway, and expressway. Other similar terms ...

called ''Perämerentie'' (which in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

translates roughly to "''The road of

Bothnian bay The Bothnian Bay or Bay of Bothnia (; ) is the northernmost part of the Gulf of Bothnia, which is in turn the northern part of the Baltic Sea. The land holding the bay is still rising after the weight of ice-age glaciers has been removed, and ...

''"), and is the northernmost motorway/freeway in the world with Alaska Highway 3 in

Fairbanks, Alaska Fairbanks is a Municipal home rule, home rule city and the county seat, borough seat of the Fairbanks North Star Borough, Alaska, United States. Fairbanks is the largest city in the Interior Alaska, interior region of Alaska and the second la ...

being the second northernmost. Although there are some

grade separated In civil engineering (more specifically highway engineering), grade separation is a method of aligning a junction of two or more surface transport axes at different heights ( grades) so that they will not disrupt the traffic flow on other tr ...

roads built closely to motorway standards even further north, such as the

Rovaniemi Rovaniemi ( , ; ; ; ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Lapland (Finland), Lapland. It is located near the Arctic Circle in the northern interior of the country. The population of Rovaniemi is approximately , while the Rovaniemi su ...

bypass in Finnish highway 4, they aren't signed as motorways. Finnish national road 29 was the first highway in Finland to be dual carriageway for its whole length.Valtatie 29
/ref>

Detailed route

The road begins from the national boundary of

and

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

, between the towns of Tornio (Finland) and Haparanda (Sweden). Road bypasses the town center of Tornio at its southern edge and then crosses the Torne river as a four lane road with at-grade junctions. Right after the bridge the road intersects with the highway 21 at a

junction. After the junction with the highway 21 the road continues as a four lane road with at-grade intersections for about 2 kilometers to the

roundabout A roundabout, a rotary and a traffic circle are types of circular intersection or junction in which road traffic is permitted to flow in one direction around a central island, and priority is typically given to traffic already in the junct ...

junction with regional route 922. After the roundabout the road continues as a grade separated motorway with

speed limit Speed limits on road traffic, as used in most countries, set the legal maximum speed at which vehicles may travel on a given stretch of road. Speed limits are generally indicated on a traffic sign reflecting the maximum permitted speed, express ...

of 120 km/h for 14 kilometers until it terminates in

at Kallinkangas junction with highway 4, where the motorway continues as highway 4 to the south towards the town of

Kemi Kemi (; ; ; ) is a cities of Finland, town and municipalities of Finland, municipality of Finland. It is located approximately from the city of Tornio and the Finland–Sweden border, Swedish border. The distance to Oulu is to the south and t ...

References

External links

*
Valtatie 29
at www.mattigronroos.fi Roads in Finland {{Finland-transport-stub