Wednesday 12 February 2020

Norway’s $47BN Coastal Highway



The Norwegian government wants to create the largest infrastructure project in the country's history.

See more interesting construction videos at:
http://www.TheB1M.com

Norway's western coast has some pretty good looking landscapes. It certainly has been carved by glaciers throughout the ages. The current travel route is relatively quite slow. The Norwegian government is working on improving access to services, residential markets and labour markets across the country’s western regions by starting the largest infrastructure project in the nation’s history. This project would speed up the travel time.

The E39 runs between, Kristiansand in the far south of the country and Trondheim in the north. The route navigates its way across the fjord network and features no fewer than 7 ferry crossings. Norway is actually proposing to remove all ferry crossings on the E39 highway in order to better connect the region.

The new coastal highway project aims to completely eliminate the need for ferry services. It's possible to build a series of bridges and tunnels across, through and under the landscape.

The whole route won't be completely finished until 2025. The government has also unveiled plans to build the world's first sea tunnel for ships to bypass the storm-battered Stan peninsula in Norway. The fascinating project, estimated to cost $314 million will begin in 2019 and take about three to four years to complete.

Underwater tunnels are an interesting idea. Right now there is a Norwegian 7.7 km Eiksund Tunnel. It is known for being the deepest undersea tunnel in the world, reaching the depth of −287 m below sea level.

Right now, there are over 900 various road tunnels in Norway with total length exceeding 750 km.

Here are Norway's longest road tunnels: (Length: m):

Lærdalstunnelen - 24,509 m
Gudvangatunnel - 11,428 m
Folgefonntunnel - 11,150 m
Toven Tunnel - 10,665 m
Jondalstunnelen - 10,400 m
Mælefjelltunnelen - 9,354 m
Korgfjelltunnelen - 8,530 m
Steigentunnelen - 8,079 m
Bømlafjordtunnel - 7,888 m
Eiksundtunnelen - 7,765 m
Svartisentunnelen - 7,615 m
Høyangertunnelen - 7,543 m
Vallaviktunnelen - 7,510 m
Åkrafjordtunnelen - 7,400 m

Here are Norway's longest subsea road tunnels: (Length: m):

Karmøy Tunnel - 8,900 m
Bømlafjordtunnel - 7,888 m
Eiksundtunnelen - 7,765 m
Oslofjordtunnel - 7,230 m
Nordkapptunnelen - 6,871 m
Byfjordtunnelen - 5,875 m
Hitratunnelen - 5,645 m

Here are Norway's longest railway tunnels: (Length: m):

Romeriksporten - 14,580 m
Lieråsen tunnel - 10,723 m
Finsetunnelen - 10,600 m
Kvinesheitunnele - 9,065 m
Hægebostadtunnelen - 8,474 m
Trollkona tunnel - 8,043 m
Ulrikentunnelen - 7,670 m
Majorstuen-Hasle
Oslo Metro line 5 - 7,060 m

The economy of Norway is certainly a developed mixed economy with some state-ownership in strategic areas. Although sensitive to important global business cycles, the economy of Norway has shown strong growth since the start of the industrial era.

Currency of Norway is the Norwegian krone.

Norway Gross Domestic Product: 398.8 billion USD (2017) World Bank
Norway GDP per Capita: 75,504.57 USD (2017) World Bank
Norway Unemployment rate: 3.9% (Sep. 2019) Eurostat
Norway GNI per capita: 63,530 PPP dollars (2017) World Bank
Norway Gross national income: 335.6 billion PPP dollars (2017) World Bank
Norway GDP growth rate: 1.9% annual change (2017) World Bank


Above: Some of these Norwegian coins have holes in them. This might be because you can put a string through them and hang them on a string conveniently.


Above: Interesting Norwegian paper bills have pictures of fish, sailboat and lighthouse.


Above: Beautiful Norwegian Landscape


Above: Flag of Norway


Above: Beautiful buildings in Norway




4 comments:

  1. What happens when a ship accidentaly hits one of those floating pontoons on a submerged floating tunnel ? Here be DRAGONS !

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There are some disadvantages to underwater tunnels. Immersed tunnels are often partly exposed (usually with some rock armour and natural siltation) on the river/sea bed, certainly risking a sunken ship/anchor strike. Constant direct contact with water necessitates careful waterproofing design around the joints. There is also risk of water leaking into the tunnel.

      It's unfortunate when accidentally a ship crashes into a tunnel. Here is an example of such a crash:
      Wind‐Driven Ship Tears a Gap in Chesapeake Bridge‐Tunnel - nytimes.com

      The Seikan Tunnel is the world's longest tunnel with an undersea segment (the Channel Tunnel, while shorter, has a longer undersea segment). It is also the second deepest tunnel and the second longest main-line railway tunnel after the Gotthard Base Tunnel in Switzerland interestingly opened in 2016.

      The following could be an interesting advantage for most tunnels out there. Most tunnels which go under a body of water are so far below the bed of the body of water that little short of a nuclear blast could cause them to flood catastrophically. Even an earthquake is unlikely to cause catastrophic flooding of a well constructed tunnel.

      Delete
  2. Norway is lavishly creating this investment. I hope they will not fail.

    Keep in mind, Kakorrhaphiophobia is an abnormal, persistent, irrational fear of failure. In clinical cases, it's debilitating: the fear of even the most small subtle failure or defeat is so intense that it restricts a person from actually doing anything at all.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Here's something interesting from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology

    Making future transport more climate friendly

    Norway's largest current road project is the E39 Coastal Highway Route, which stretches from Kristiansand to Trondheim. The ongoing project will make the route ferry-free and shorten the driving time between locations along this route.

    https://phys.org/news/2020-01-future-climate-friendly.html

    ReplyDelete