Open-face blasting works in the Laakso Hospital area reach halfway point – volume of rock extracted so far would fill the Finnish Parliament House
The open-face blasting works in the hospital area are due to be completed in the summer of 2024.

Excavation of the foundations for the new main building of Laakso Joint Hospital began in the spring.
The open-face blasting crew has made fast progress and is approaching an important milestone: Almost half of the volume of rock to be extracted has now been moved.
The figure stood at approximately 90,000 solid cubic meters at the end of July, and the amount of rock extracted so far would fill the Finnish Parliament House, which has a volume of 108,000 cubic meters.
Perhaps a better illustration of the scale of the project is the 10,000 truckloads of rock that have been hauled off the site.
The total volume of rock to be extracted is estimated at approximately 210,000 solid cubic meters. The open-face blasting works in the hospital area are due to be completed in the summer of 2024.
According to Aleksi Marjusaari, foreman of Destia’s open-face blasting crew, the crew is working its way gradually toward the southern edge of the site, where progress is expected to slow down: Blasts in the southern part of the site will need to be smaller than at the northern end, where the crew was working deep underground.
The same open-face blasting crew has also started work on the tunnel that will provide access to the site from Urheilukatu.
Underground excavation also under way
The excavation crew has been working on the tunnel providing vehicular access from the Laaksonkenttä riding arena to the hospital’s new underground facilities for the past couple of months. Almost 150 meters of the tunnel have been excavated so far.
The crew is currently working underneath the northern courtyard of the rehabilitation center run by the Finnish Association of People with Physical Disabilities and making its way toward the old buildings of Laakso Hospital. The entire excavation phase of the project is due to be completed by the end of 2025.