In total, the Norwegian government has planned to spend 120 billion Euro to develop an efficient, environmentally friendly and safe transport system. A transport system that will add many large and complex tunnel systems on both road, rail and by sea.
Norway use the national transport plan that outlines a strategy for developing the overall system for road, rail, air and sea transport. The plan deals with both operation, maintenance and investments. This period's National Transport Plan 2022–2033 (NTP) was presented on 19 March 2021 and presents the Government's transport policy for the next twelve years. The plan is being discussed in Parliament, but final decisions on the initiation of measures and projects are made through propositions and the State Budget. With this plan, Norway will continue a large-scale investment in the development of infrastructure.
Roads
In total, the government plan to invest 51 billion Euro in national roads. Nearly 10 billion Euro are prioritized for the operation and maintenance. On county roads, 1.6 billion Euro are for the necessary upgrade of the tunnels on county roads according to the tunnel safety regulations. In addition, toll collection will account for 28 percent of the funds in investment projects.
The state is responsible for managing the national roads in Norway, and this plan is marked by this. Norway will invest to ensure new, better and safer roads. Norway will also strengthening the efforts on operation, maintenance and renewal to take care of the existing roads, says Minister of Transport and Communications Knut A. Hareide.
13 major road improvement projects are prioritized for start-up in the first six-year period.
In addition there are many new investment projects. Here are some examples:
The Norwegian Public Roads Administration and Bane NOR are preparing to start up the E16 and Vossebanen Arna-Stanghelle in 2024. The project involves the construction of a 36 km road tunnel and a 26 km railway tunnel, divided into three tunnel sections with tunnel lengths between 8 and 10 km. In this project, the road and railway tunnels will provide common solutions for evacuation in the event of fire and accidents. The existing road has a high risk of landslides, in addition to many traffic accidents. The cost estimate for the road development is NOK 1,4 billion Euro.
One of the northern Norway's largest transport project, the new road between Sortland, Tjeldsund, Lødingen and Harstad, is estimated to cost 0.9 billion Euros. The E10 / rv project. 85 Tjeldsund – Gullesfjordbotn – Langvassbukt comprises the construction of a total of 82 km of two-lane road, divided into 55 km of new road and 27 km of tunnels.
E6 Megården – Mørsvikbotn, is a new road connection that will replace 16 road tunnels that do not satisfy the requirements in the European tunnel safety regulations. 45 km of new road will reduce travel time by 25 minutes and reduce long detours in the event of incidents. The project's cost estimate is 1 billion Euros, and the project is prioritized in the first six-year period. This is one of the largest transport developments in Northern Norway ever.
E39 Ålesund – Molde is a ferry-free crossing of Romsdalsfjorden and improvements to the roads on land. The project halves the travel time between Ålesund and Molde from about two hours to one hour. The crossing of Romsdalsfjorden is a 15 km long subsea tunnel. The cost estimate for the project is 2.5 billion Euros.
E39 Svegatjørn – Rådal, which is a 16 kilometer four-lane road, 13 kilometers in tunnels. The project is under construction, and the cost estimate is 0.9 billion Euro. Opening is planned in 2022.
In addition, Project E39 Rogfast has started, which involves crossing the Boknafjord and Kvitsøyfjord north of Stavanger with the world's longest underwater road tunnel, a 26.5 km two-lane tunnel with complex intersections and ventilation solutions and road access to the Kvitsøy community.
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