Getting a permit for signage

Where can I get a permit for erecting information signage and signposts?

Information signage and road signs

If you want to erect a sign along a highway in Finland, you will need a permit from the Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment (ELY Centre). In a municipal street network, the licenser is the municipality, town or city, and on a private road it is the owner of the road. Permits for information signage and road signs are granted centrally by the Pirkanmaa ELY Centre. More detailed instructions are available in Finnish at www.ely-keskus.fi/web/ely/opasteet, or you can call ELY Centre’s transport customer services at +358 (0)295 020 600 (Mon–Fri 9 a.m.–4 p.m.). No special permit is required for signs erected for private use.

You can order indoor and outdoor signage for your company or for private use easily and simply from our customer services at traffic@kaskea.fi or by calling us at +358 (0)6 4822 200.

Temporary notice sign

A temporary notice sign, i.e. a notice by a private person or some other non-commercial actor, may be erected no more than one month before the event and must be removed no later than one week after the event has finished. According to Traficom’s regulations, erecting a temporary notice sign along a highway does not necessitate a notification to the ELY Centre. 

The maximum size of a temporary notice sign erected within the road area of a highway is one square metre. A temporary notice sign may also include directional elements, such as arrows and the distance to the destination.

Roadside advertising

The new Finnish Road Traffic Act, which came into force on 1 June 2020, introduced a new road sign: the G42 temporary information sign, which is used to provide information, for example, on temporary or seasonal sales activities or public events, to which the rules of a temporary notice sign do not apply. A permit subject to a charge must be applied for in order to use a G42 temporary information sign.

A notification to the ELY Centre must be made about roadside advertisements erected along a highway[TP1]  for a longer period. This duty to notify applies only to companies’ advertisements, not temporary notice signs. The notification is to be submitted to the Pirkanmaa ELY Centre. A notification about a roadside advertisement must be accompanied with a map image showing the location of the advertisement, a written description of the advertisement’s properties, as well as information about the landowner’s permission to erect it and service routes for the advertisement. The processing of the notification is subject to a charge. A roadside advertisement must not be erected until after receiving a positive decision.