Norway: Highways and Road Projects

[Plutonic Panda]

]Another day another massive road tunnel project in Norway

Oslo Fjord Link a priority for 2024

The new tunnel will run parallel with the existing 7.3km-long structure which connects Hurum and Frogn near the Norwegian capital Oslo.

- https://www.worldhighways.com/wh12/news/oslo-fjord-link-priority-2024

[Chris]

The world's longest road tunnel is currently under construction in Western Norway, the 'Rogfast' project, or the 'Rogaland Fixed Link Project', which is part of E39 north of Stavanger.

The twin-tube tunnel will be 26.5 km (16.5 miles) long and drops 392 meters below sea level, making it almost the lowest point on earth you can reach by vehicle (slightly less deep than the Dead Sea).

There is also a diamond interchange below the seabed for a side tunnel to Kvitsøy.

Construction is currently underway and scheduled for completion in 2031.

[Plutonic Panda]

Norway's massive Rogfast freeway network, which is being constructed pretty much at one time is on track to be completed by 2032:

https://www.globalhighways.com/news/norways-massive-rogfast-project

[Chris]

Norway has many bridges to islands with a small population.

An example is the Ytre Steinsund Bridge, which is being constructed on an archipelago near the mouth of the Sognefjord. The population of the island it connects is probably not much more than 150. The entire municipal population of Solund is 756. The municipality is not connected by a fixed link to the mainland.

Location: https://www.openstreetmap.org/?mlat=61.0358&mlon=4.7413#map=12/61.0082/4.8257

Their argument is that a fixed link is cheaper in the long term than running a ferry that has a very low usage rate. Another argument is that staff to operate these ferries is increasingly difficult to hire in the remote areas of Norway.

[Chris]

Here's a progress map of the 26.5 kilometer long, twin-tube Boknafjord Tunnel (Rogfast project) of E39 north of Stavanger.

The tunnel is being bored through three main contracts E02, E03 and E04. Both tubes are mostly bored simultaneously.

The contract E02 was awarded last and its progress is thus more limited, they're working on the diamond interchange which is being built below the seabed. The spiral tunnel to the island of Kvitsøy is completed.

This will be the longest road tunnel in the world.

Fremdrift = progress.

[Chris]

E6 in Northern Norway is uniquely vulnerable to incidents, usually weather related.

As E6 is the only road in many areas, a closure mandates an incredible detour through Sweden and/or Finland. This is called 'Norway is cut in two' in the news.

Earlier this week there was a bus fire in a tunnel on E6, which resulted in a closure and a 1200 kilometer detour to get to the other side.

Broadcaster NRK had a story about a couple that was driving from Tromsø in Northern Norway to Valdres in Southern Norway. They had to take a 10 hour detour. If they were stuck just north of the tunnel, they would have to backtrack 4 hours on E6 to reach E10, the nearest road into Sweden.

The tunnel was damaged significantly, however given the lack of detour options, they decided to reopen the tunnel using escort vehicles. This would normally be considered unsafe, given that all the tunnel safety equipment has burned up. But with Easter traffic ramping up, they decided to reopen the tunnel.

Another issue with driving through Sweden is freight transport, which would unexpectedly have to pass through customs twice. Another issue is the transport of certain items which are legal in Norway but not in Sweden (such as firearms).

There are concrete plans to build a more modern E6 in this area. The current road was built in 1966 and bypassed a ferry (which doesn't exist anymore).

[kphoger]

There are concrete plans to build a more modern E6 in this area.

I see what you did there.

[Great Lakes Roads]

The B1M's video on the megaproject in Norway.

[Chris]

That's a really good video about the project. I always find the B1M videos where he goes on location more interesting.

Almost no tunnels in Norway are constructed with a tunnel boring machine. While the geology is complex, most of it is hard granite, which is suitable for the blasting method, which is considerably cheaper, as it requires no TBM and relatively limited staffing, which is a key factor due to Norway's high labor cost.

A TBM would also have trouble cutting through the granite. TBMs also consume colossal amounts of power (over 20 MW), so they need a dedicated power supply, you can't just connect it to a rural power grid.