Inside Norway's $47 Billion Floating Highway

[Music] norway is embarking on the largest roadway infrastructure plan in its history in fact it may be the largest road revamp in the entire world with a budget of 47 billion dollars this new coastal highway is going to connect areas of norway that used to take 21 hours to travel between it's going to bypass seven different ferry crossings and cut travel time down by half but how exactly is this possible well by essentially creating the world's first ever floating highway from state-of-the-art floating tunnels to how they're dealing with safety concerns here's a look inside norway's ambitious new project the almost 700 mile trip between the norwegian cities of christian sound in the south and trondheim in the north typically runs about 21 hours if you're traveling at an average of 30 miles an hour that's over 200 us dollars in gas for a small car to travel just one way since 60 percent of norway's exported goods are produced in the west coast where a third of norway's population also lives there's a lot of traveling between cities to keep the country running but with a new multi-billion dollar road project norway hopes to cut travel times and the cost of gas to get there in half with seven different ferry crossings along the way getting around norway is anything but a piece of cake especially when you realize that each crossing can take about 45 minutes and cost about 16 us dollars tourists may enjoy the scenic route but those traveling for business or even medical purposes aren't big fans of taking the long way fortunately there will soon be a shortcut thanks to the development of the new coastal highway route e39 this 47 billion infrastructure project aims to replace the ferries with bridges and to create conventional tunnels as well as what could be the world's first floating tunnel to form the highway the submerged roadway is essentially a pair of concrete tubes submerged about 100 feet below the water's surface this new and more predictable transport system will be a great benefit to norway's national economy it'll connect cities in ways they haven't been before and create new patterns of habitation for the people living there these new roads will also shorten the path to reach hospitals jobs and schools creating a more stable and diverse economy and a lot of happy commuters norway also hopes that the new highway will increase their population some areas like tyson's a region of rural municipalities located on an archipelago off the coast have lost over 50 percent of their population in the last century due to inaccessibility the trend of population loss is continuing across scandinavia there are many benefits to restructuring the e39 but preliminary estimates show that the required investments and improvements will cost much more than the 47 billion highway budget they estimate it could even be as much as 340 billion norwegian krona or 38 billion us dollars extra so why exactly does norway want to embark on this crazy floating tunnel strategy instead of just making more bridges norway has a few environmental issues with making roads first the harsh weather conditions can be unpredictable with roads often closing and ferries having to cancel their departure last minute due to snow heavy winds or high waves this leads to people driving for hours only to be turned away at crossings and forced to put their plans on hold norway is also home to many deep fjords which makes things like bridges necessary but they can have a huge impact on the environment and be unsafe in those harsh weather conditions to decrease environmental impact and maintain norway's natural beauty the best and most efficient highway is the one that's almost completely hidden with this in mind the innovative new design norway is going with is known as a submerged floating tube bridge or sftb ariana minaretti a chief engineer in the norwegian public roads administration told cbc that some stretches they have studied will have average-sized tunnels of about five to six kilometers long while others might be only 600 meters long she also explained that the submerged floating tube bridge was actually first conceptualized by naval architect sir edward reed all the way back in 1886. it was proposed again in norway in 1923 but the technology still wasn't quite ready for such a big project now finally the idea dating back more than a century is close to becoming realized with bridges that span long distances you need arches and suspensions at certain points but for a submerged floating tunnel if you do it absolutely correct and balance the weight of the structure with the buoyancy of the structure it can go on forever said niels eric anders ronquist a professor of structural engineering at the norwegian university of science and technology who now works as a consultant on the new highway project when a fjord is deeper than 100 meters or wider than two to three kilometers the seabed is too deep for a traditional rock tunnel because it implies the use of a huge amount of land on the shores suspension bridges seem like an obvious second choice but the harsh winds can endanger travelers and force the closure of these bridges but with a floating tunnel all of these issues can be avoided though the floating tunnel is buoyant the tube itself isn't actually floating the tubes are stabilized by cables tethered to the seabed or by pontoons floating on the surface at roughly 800 foot intervals the pontoon idea is likely the safest because boats will be able to easily see the location of the tunnel and with the actual tunnel far enough beneath the water's surface ships boats and even submarines will be able to easily avoid collision the experts have decided that 20 to 50 meters or between 60 to 150 feet below the surface is sufficient depth to avoid collisions with water traffic while also avoiding a depth that could cause increased water pressure one of the proposed new tunnels is in bonifjorden and it's called the raglan fixed link or simply rogfast construction has already started on the submerged tube bridge that'll be 390 meters deep and have a 27 kilometer long tunnel making it the deepest and longest undersea road tunnel in the entire world a spurt connection to the island municipality of kritsoi will be included in the design creating a place where people can exit the e39 to enter a small village like conventional tunnels the floating tunnel will also have escape routes that motorists could take to return to the surface in case of an emergency the rockfast tunnel will have emergency exits every 250 meters 820 feet along with emergency lights and phones at various intervals the work on this particular tunnel started in 2018 and was expected to be completed in 2026 for a cost of 2 billion us dollars but with the project already overrunning cost estimates it's now only expected to be completed by 2029. the government has proposed fundraising of an extra 1.3 billion norwegian cronie or 145 and a half million us dollars and they plan to put a toll in place for 20 years after the tunnel's completion with a fee of 150 crony per passage for light vehicles that amounts to about 16 us dollars which is about the same price it would take you to hitch a ride on one of those ferries the design for these submerged tunnels is definitely innovative but with innovation comes a lot of brand new problems fires and explosions are a major concern as escaping an underwater tunnel isn't exactly the easiest thing to do just imagine being stuck 150 feet under water while disaster occurs that possibility is enough to make even the most seasoned traveler anxious thankfully norway is already on the case to make sure their floating tunnels are as safe as possible they have been testing small scale fires and explosions in their tunnels to plan for cases where a truck is carrying dangerous goods or two large vehicles collide they need to have a prepared and standardized exit strategy as well as a response team that can quickly get down to the tunnels if anything goes wrong access for emergency services is absolutely crucial however the most challenging part of the design is getting to know the fjords and the best way to maneuver around or through them without causing any lasting environmental damage thankfully the norwegian public roads administration has been studying norway's natural landscape for years to best understand how automobiles and the environment can safely co-exist even with their vast knowledge and research the most challenging fjord to get right is the sonia fjord at 3.7 kilometers wide and 1.3 kilometers deep at its lowest point nicknamed the king of the fjords it's the largest and deepest fjord in norway as well as the hardest to build upon experts are still evaluating whether some fjords like this one are even suitable for a submerged floating tube bridge while they may be in the process of creating these tunnels research is nowhere near complete the coastal highway route project is collaborating with three of the largest universities in the nordic region the norwegian university of science and technology the university of stavanier and chalmers university of technology they have about 50 phd candidates working on solving different engineering challenges related to the e39 project including how to maintain the tunnels once they're constructed and make sure they never break the group is also working on solving general roadway infrastructure issues in norway including the development of intelligent transport systems using solar energy to create ice-free road surfaces in winter and how to digitally operate and maintain their road structures it's a lot of work but figuring out all of these issues looks like it's going to be completely worth it for norway a continuous e39 highway that's accessible 24 7 despite harsh weather conditions will please inhabitants and tourists alike as it is norway makes more than 50 billion krona or 5.6 billion u.s dollars in tourism each year but a new and more efficient roadway is expected to improve that number the e39 will also create new links between islands and the mainland encouraging more economic activity in areas that used to be a lot harder to visit norway hopes that their new floating highway will be accessible to traffic by 2050. it plans to be about 1100 kilometers long by the end of construction cutting back on all of the seven ferry crossings plus an additional cutback of 50 kilometers of roadway while this ambitious project might be the first structure of its kind it definitely won't be the last engineers in italy and china are already pursuing similar concepts now the only question is who will finish first would you drive in one of these floating tunnels or would you rather take the scenic route let us know in the comments section down below and don't forget to hit that like button and subscribe to the richest for more thanks for watching and we'll see you next time

Channel: TheRichest

Views: 3,910,978

Rating: 4.8641915 out of 5

Keywords: norway coastal highway, floating highway, floating tunnel, expensive highway, futuristic highway, norway fjords, underwater highway, engineering, mega engineering, builds, roads, the richest

Id: WMbSzFf_wTc

Length: 10min 29sec (629 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 20 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/babilen5]

Curious that this does not seem to include any plans for trains.

[u/inverse_limits]

"Crone ay"???

[u/snoozieboi]

As somebody who might move to the area of this road I just don't get two things about the first tunnel shown from Stavanger to Haugalandet "Rogfast".

It's ridiculously long compared to just having it where the ferry it's replacing travels which seems to be like a fourth of the rogfast tunnel length. My only understanding is that the short distance could also require a depth which makes the tunnels too steep for safety (engines overheating). The solution to that is often building a double tunnel solution.

The other thing is that the long tunnel is too expensive (afaik 16,8bn/mrd NOK), again, it sounds like the shorter ferry route stretch is cheaper and I agree it's ridiculously expensive especially when they apparently need to go to that archipelago to air out the tunnels, but also the tunnel isn't going to be a loss given the societal benefits over the coming decades. Meanwhile we waste money on the trade-loss to Sweden along the border on alcohol and food of 16mrd NOK every year, the loss from that is 2,5mrd NOK in VAT alone, along with the 8 million unnecessary long trips Norwegians do to Sweden to do shopping and save a NOK. Corona shows closing the border made a huge surge in sales for the typical svenskehandel-products.