Finnish national road 12 in the context of "Tampere Tunnel"

Ratina is a district in the center of Tampere, Finland, on the east side of Tammerkoski. The Ratina Stadium, Tampere Bus Station and Tampere's largest shopping mall, the Ratina shopping centre, are located in the district, among others. To the north of Ratina is also the Koskikeskus shopping centre. The district consists of a peninsula called Ratinanniemi, which is surrounded on three sides by Ratinansuvanto and Viinikanlahti. Between Ratinanniemi and the Laukontori square is a pedestrian bridge called Laukonsilta, which significantly shortens travel time to the city center. The Tampere highway has good connections to the Helsinki-Tampere motorway and along it to the Tampere Ring Road, and via the Ratinansilta bridge and the Hämeenpuisto park to Highway 12. Ratinanranta is the southern part of the Tampere highway from Ratina, which used to be a recreation ground and factory area. Its new construction into a dense apartment building area of 1,000 inhabitants began in 2008, and the latest residential buildings east of the Voimakatu street are expected to be completed in 2013.

The name ratina probably dates back to the road meaning rata. Ratinanniemi, which lies between the Ratina Reservoir and Lake Pyhäjärvi's Viinikanlahti, remained uninhabited for a long time, until a few residential buildings began to rise there in the late 19th century. In 1874 a glass factory was built on the peninsula and a dozen years later two machine shops, but all these companies remained short-lived. Later, a brick factory and the city's electric power station operated in the area. The first town plan for the Ratinanniemi district was completed in 1886, according to which a total of 57 residential estates were reserved in the area, the smallest of which were for villa buildings. The plan for the eastern part of the Ratina district, with an area reserved for a new bus station, was confirmed in 1935.

A bypass is a road or highway that avoids or "bypasses" a built-up area, town, or village, to let through traffic flow without interference from local traffic, to reduce congestion in the built-up area, to improve road safety and as replacement for obsolete roads that are no longer in use as a result of devastating natural disasters (earthquakes, tsunamis, landslides, volcanic eruptions). A bypass specifically designated for trucks may be called a truck route.

If there are no strong land use controls, buildings are often built in town along a bypass, converting it into an ordinary town road, and the bypass may eventually become as congested as the local streets it was intended to avoid. Many businesses are often built there for ease of access, while homes are often avoided for noise and pollution reasons.

Lahti (Finnish pronunciation: [ˈlɑhti], lit. 'bay'; Swedish: Lahtis) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Päijät-Häme. It is located in the Finnish Lakeland. The population of Lahti is approximately 122,000, while the sub-region has a population of approximately 205,000. It is the 9th most populous municipality in Finland, and the sixth most populous urban area in the country.

Lahti is situated on a bay at the southern end of lake Vesijärvi about 100 kilometres (60 mi) north-east of the capital city Helsinki, 38 kilometres (24 mi) south-west of Heinola and 74 kilometres (46 mi) east of Hämeenlinna, the capital of the region of Kanta-Häme. Lahti is situated at the intersection of Highway 4 (between Helsinki and Jyväskylä) and Highway 12 (between Tampere and Kouvola), which are the most significant main roads of Lahti. Its neighboring municipalities are Asikkala, Heinola, Hollola, Iitti and Orimattila.

Paasikiven–Kekkosentie ("Paasikivi–Kekkonen Road"), or Rantaväylä, is a busy car traffic route located in Tampere, Finland, which serves as a regional transit road and a significant access route to the city center. It is a four-lane highway owned by the Finnish state and part of Highway 12. Paasikiven–Kekkosentie is located between the Nokia's motorway and the Teiskontie street junction.

The originally Paasikiven–Kekkosentie was seven kilometers long and was built in several phases. The first part was completed on the southern shore of Lake Näsijärvi and north of Tampere's city center in the mid-1970s. The last part at the Petsamo district was opened to traffic in 1989. At the planning stage, the highway was called Kehätie ("Ring Road"), but later the western part was named Paasikiventie and the eastern part Kekkosentie in the town plan. Paasikiventie changed to Kekkosentie on the shore of Tammerkoski at the eastern end of the Näsinsilta bridge.