Temporary parking lots have been set up in various parts of south- eastern Finland to ease long queues of trucks lined up to cross the border into Russia. The jam on Monday was hampering traffic at the ports of Kotka and Hamina.
Last weekend the length of truck lines hit record lengths, stretching for as far as 80 kilometres. With nowhere else to go while waiting to be processed across the border, trucks lined the highways between the Vaalimaa border crossing point and Kotka, between Imatra and Joutseno, and between Loviisa and Koskenkylä.
If the situation does not ease, officials will start directing trucks to park along highway 6 between Taavetti and Utti. Speed limits on highways where trucks are parked are to be lowered to 80 km/h and on secondary roads down to 60 km/h.
Finnish customs officials say that later this autumn, under poor driving weather conditions, truck lines may reach from the border all the way back to the Helsinki area.