Raitti181 story

History

First there was a small sandy village trail that has been around since the Middle Ages. This was known as the so-calledJungfrusundintie”. It took the port of Jungfrusund in Kemiö. From there, ships left to Sweden. Jungfrusundintie went up to the village of Sauvo, somewhere where the current road goes to 181 However, the name of Jungfrusundintie was no longer used in modern times. There was cableferry connections on both roads to get to Kemiö. There were no bridges over the Rungonsalmi bay.

Picture above: Road sign: Sauvo 1 km, Turku 36 km, Kemiö 23 km and Nummenpää 2 km. Photographer, Poutvaara Matti, 1964 National Board of Antiquities

Above: The scenery of the Sauvon-Kemiöntie before the Road 181, from the direction of Härmälä to Mäenala and the Sauvo centre. Photographer, Poutvaara Matti, 1964, National Board of Antiquities

In 1961, an initiative was made to improve the road to Kemiö through Sauvo. The same project also involved the construction of a new road bridge to the Rungonsalmi bay and rejection of the former cableferries. The construction of the road, called Road 181, started in 1971. In the years 1971-1972, the road was built, as also the Rungonsalmi bridge. The opening of the new bridge was celebrated on 8.9. 1972. On the same day, ferries between Sauvo and Kemiö were left out of use.

The new road brought a good improvement over previous traffic conditions. At the time, there was also a fairly comprehensive selection of bus connections  to and from Turku to the Taalintehdas in the 1970s, from morning to late night.

The new road also shortened driving time to Turku and accelerated commuting. The good road also took many people out of the community in the 1970s. At that time, the population in the Sauvo was constantly decreasing. At its lowest, there was only about 2,400 inhabitants in Sauvo, in the late 1970s. In the 1980s, the road 181 began to bring migrants to the municipality back, also thanks to the active policy for to get new people living in the Sauvo. Since then, the population of Sauvo has grown. It has been over 3000 people for a few years now.