NORWAY:Investors Fund 60% of Threeway Link

The tunnel from a mainland peninsula at Sveio heads northward to Foyno, a small island, and the route then splits to two 2-lane suspension bridges,

(1) northeast to Stord Island the Digernessundet Bridge with a main span of 677m (2,200') two towers of 97m (318') and shipping clearance of 18m (59'), and

(2) westward to Bomlo Island the Spissoysundet Bridge with a main span of 577m (1,892'), towers of 105m (344') and shipping clearance of 36m (118').

The Triangle Link is the first fixed crossing for the islands of Bomlo and Stord to the mainland but is also part of a developing coastal arterial or trunk road (E39) between Stavanger, Bergen and Trondheim with a whole series of tunnels and bridges over fjords and sounds.

30k people live on the islands directly served by the Triangle Link and 4 vehicular ferry services (see dotted lines on map above) will be discontinued on its completion. There are 21km of roads involved in the project and a cycle/pedestrian path system on the bridge links.

The tunnel and two main bridges meet on the little island of Foyno at an interchange/toll plaza where cars will pay a toll of $10 whichever of the three different routes they are taking. Just over 2,000 veh/day use the ferries and the tunnel-bridges link is expected to get 3.2k veh/day use in its first year.

The project will be owned and operated by the Norway Public Roads Administration which provides 40% of the capital. 60% of the capital is provided by Sunnhordland Bru-Og Tunnelskap, whose managing director Oyvind Halleraker said this is one of the larger of scores of similar joint toll ventures between investors and the Norwegian road administration. He says it is probably the deepest road tunnel yet built. There are a few longer ones.

APOLOGY: No slashed ‘O’ on keyboard. (O Halleraker, Sunnhordland Bru-Og Tunnelskap 47 5342 8010 sbt.as@online.no)