Finnish national road 23

Road in Finland

National Road 23
Valtatie 23 (Finnish) Riksväg 23 (Swedish)
Finnish Lake Road Finnish: Järvi-Suomen tie Swedish: Insjöfinlands vägen

Route information
Maintained by the Finnish Transport Agency
Length	517 km (321 mi)
Major junctions
From	Pori
To	Joensuu

Location
Country	Finland
Major cities	Jyväskylä

Highway system
Highways in Finland

The Finnish national road 23 (Finnish: Valtatie 23, Swedish: Riksväg 23) is a highway between Western and Eastern Finland that runs between the cities of Pori and Joensuu via Jyväskylä. The length of the road is 517 kilometres (321 mi). The road is also called the Finnish Lake Road (Finnish: Järvi-Suomen tie, Swedish: Insjöfinlands vägen), as it runs through the Finnish Lakeland area in the central hinterland of the country.^[1]

The road is almost entirely two-lane, except for the motorway section shared with Highways 4, 9 and 13 in the Jyväskylä sub-region, the short four-lane section located in the center of Varkaus and the motorway section common to Highway 9 in Joensuu. The road has been built over decades in several different parts, and its quality varies significantly. For most of the current highway route, the road was completely absent before the main sections were built mainly in the 1960s and 1970s. Highway 23 road came at the turn of the 1970s and 1980s.^[2]

Route

The road passes through the following municipalities, localities in brackets:

Pori-Pomarkku–Kankaanpää–Jämijärvi–Parkano–Ikaalinen–Parkano (again)–Kihniö–Virrat–Keuruu–Petäjävesi–Jyväskylä–Laukaa–Hankasalmi–Pieksämäki–Joroinen–Pieksämäki (again)–Joroinen (again)–Pieksämäki (again)–Joroinen (again)–Varkaus–Leppävirta–Heinävesi–Leppävirta (again)–Heinävesi (again)–Liperi–Joensuu.

Sources

Autoilijan tiekartta 2007 (in Finnish). Helsinki: AffectoGenimap Finland Oy. 2006. ISBN 978-951-593-047-7.
Grönroos, Matti. "Valtatie 23 Pori–Joensuu, 517 km" (in Finnish). Retrieved March 28, 2021.
"Kansalaisen karttapaikka" (in Finnish). Maanmittauslaitos. Retrieved March 28, 2021.
"Retkikartta.fi" (in Finnish). Vantaa: Metsähallitus. 2007. Retrieved March 28, 2021.

References

^ Hannele Tulonen: Tietoimikunta vaatii: Järvi-Suomen tie säilytettävä valtatienä (in Finnish). Helsingin Sanomat, August 27, 1992. Retrieved March 23, 2021.
^ Erkki Laitinen (1997). Keski-Suomen teillä : Keski-Suomen tiepiiri 50 vuotta (in Finnish). Jyväskylä: Keski-Suomen tiepiiri. pp. 76–77. ISBN 951-726-374-0.