Teollisuuskatu

Teollisuuskatu (Swedish: Industrigatan), meaning "Industry street", is a street in the Vallila district of Helsinki, Finland. The street is the multi-lane main connection between Pasila and Kalasatama, used by about 20 thousand vehicles per day.^[1] The street, slightly resembling a highway, is at some places over 50 metres wide, and its speed limit is 50 kph.^[1][2]

Traffic over the valley-like passage is over bridges, and the street has been called difficult to cross.^[1] The street cuts Vallila in half, and has been said to favour throughfare of cars and to be a challenge for bicycles and pedestrians.^[3] The new zoning plan for the area with new traffic solutions and park areas is intended to make the street less of a passageway, and to develop the street area as an area for jobs and as an extension to the city centre.^[4][5]

There are residential and office buildings on both sides of the street, and the neighbourhood of Puu-Vallila ("Wooden Vallila") is located to the north of the street. To the south of the street are the historical Pasila machine works and the Dallapénpuisto park. There is a ramp to the Sturenkatu street. Topographically, the street is almost entirely the bottom of an old valley stretching from Pasila to Sörnäinen, and its landscape structure can be best seen from the overpass bridges on Hämeentie and Sturenkatu.^[2]

Heavy traffic uses Teollisuuskatu to move between the western and eastern parts of the city centre.^[2] The Teollisuuskatu tunnel built in 2019 at the western end of the street cuts underneath the main railway and connects Teollisuuskatu with Veturitie. Originally Teollisuuskatu used to end at an intersection with Ratapihantie, and car traffic to the west was over the Pasilansilta bridge.^[6]