Norway Set for $47 Billion Super-highway to Transform Coastline

Norway has developed plans to take on its largest infrastructure project to date, a $47 billion scheme set to transform the country’s western coastline with a series of tunnels and bridges in a highway that will create a brilliant road trip.

The E39 Superhighway will reduce the need for ferries – the current mode of transport used – to navigate one of Europe’s most beautiful coastlines, by building a state-of-the-art highway connecting Oslo in the southeast to the coastal cities of Stavanger, Bergen, Alesund and Trondheim.

The Norwegian Public Roads Administration (NPRA), upon recognizing the various barriers posed by the nation’s intricate waterways, fjords and difficult terrains, has proposed a solution.

The existing network of small highways and high reliance on the ferry system has hindered accessibility, leading to an overall decline in the population of the region. Mayor Martin Kleppe of Tysnes, a municipality in an archipelago off the coast, claimed that the ferry system, while providing scenic views, is more of an obstacle than a reliable transport connection.

How Will Norway’s New Highway Help the Country?

The engineering plans promise to link remote island towns and improve accessibility from the rest of Scandinavia.

The enormous suspension bridge planned for Sognefjord is set to be a record breaker, with looming 1,500-foot-high towers and a 12,100-foot-long span that would surpass iconic structures such as Japan’s Akashi Kaikyo Bridge and the Millau Viaduct in France.

The difficult geography of the area, freezing weather and jagged mountainous terrain make for a relatively inhospitable combination, and so only a select few have acclimatised to living in this region. The E39 super-highway project has the goal of not only improving accessibility issues but also to counteract the declining population in these remote areas of Norway.

For example, Tysnes has seen a 50 percent decrease in population over the last century, and the project is seen as a key step towards revitalizing such rural municipalities.

The grand infrastructure project in Norway isn’t the only one taking place in Europe. A new $15 billion giga-project tunnel that will be the longest in the world is hanging in the balance, and if built, will link Tallinn in Estonia with Helsinki, in Finland, two countries currently only linked by ferry and plane.

The enormous project, which could see the construction of the world’s longest railway tunnel, known as the Helsinki-Tallinn Tunnel or the FinEst tunnel, is a proposed undersea infrastructure project that – according to initial plans – would connect the capital cities of Finland and Estonia.

The tunnel’s ultimate length would be dependent on the route chosen, and the shortest option for this project would see the creation of a tunnel with a submarine length alone of 50 miles.