Norway's Cruise Ship Tunnel Plan Explained

[Music] norway is home to some of the world's most stunning scenery but it's not exactly easy to get around for centuries humans have found navigating its network of glacial valleys known as fjords to be a serious challenge but some massive infrastructure projects are now making this incredible terrain more accessible than ever before a new coastal highway will transform road travel in the region connecting seven cities and eliminating ferry crossings cutting journey times in half and now a one-of-a-kind sea routes being built as well the world's first full-scale tunnel big enough for a cruise ship it's been talked about for years but now the stad ship tunnel has finally been approved and work will start in 2022 costing over 300 million us dollars and taking three to four years to complete the project will see a new mile-long shipping route carved under the stat havoc peninsula at its narrowest point now we've built tunnels for boats before like this one on the canal du midi in france but the norway project takes things to a whole different level after all there's a pretty big difference between a small tourist boat and a cruise ship measuring 37 meters high by 26.5 meters wide and with a depth of 12 meters the tunnel will be big enough for ships up to 16 000 tons to pass through this crazy project is the answer to a problem that's existed for more than a thousand years quite literally since the time of the vikings traversing this part of the sea has meant a treacherous journey for boats with frequent bad weather tough tidal conditions and strong currents this stretch of water is one that many ships captains would much rather avoid bypassing it could be lucrative for the country's tourism sector while other industries and trades would benefit from safer passage it's an extreme challenge that's always required a pretty extreme solution while the vikings are thought to have managed by physically dragging their boats over the land it's now possible to go through it bringing a two-hour trip down to about 12 minutes although contractors are yet to be appointed the plan is for the upper section to be excavated first in a similar way to conventional road tunnelling with underground drilling and pallet rigs there's plenty of expertise for this in the area norway is home to over a thousand road tunnels across the country construction is likely to start at opposite ends of the peninsula creating two tunnels that join in the middle the roof will then have to be reinforced with concrete for stability before service routes are added in allowing excavated material to be carried out works will then gradually move downwards layer by layer to dig out the tunnel floor temporary barriers or coffer dams will need to be placed at each end of the terrace stone entrances designed by staheta these will keep the water out and allow the excavation below sea level to take place when the works are fully finished and all the services like lighting are installed and working the tunnel can be slowly flooded before the coffer dams are cleared away in total about 8 million tons of rock will be removed and partly recycled for future projects that's equivalent to around 35 of the world's biggest cruise ships or 106 million tom cruises taking material away from the site is far from simple due to the lack of decent road infrastructure around the peninsula and barges could play a role in the process as with any world first extensive research and testing was done to make sure the project was actually possible long before approval was given this included building a mock-up of the tunnel at a test pool in trungheim by passing models of ships along it and simulating various conditions researchers found that vessels could make a safe trip through the real tunnel without hitting the walls a digital model of the tunnel was also used with a simulator to visualize how ships would approach it and to see how traffic could be managed from this testing a traffic light system will now be put in place and five ships will be able to make the trip each hour with a distance of at least 400 meters between them but this could be flexible smaller vessels may be allowed to go through side by side which would boost capacity further recent events in suez put the importance of all this testing into context when things go wrong on critical shipping routes the trade implications and internet memes can spiral with preparations now done all eyes will be on norway from the project's start right up to its expected completion in 2025. if this mission impossible works it'll surely only be a matter of time before other countries borrow the idea and try something similar while the coastal highway is far bigger and more expensive this project will be no less of an achievement it may have taken a millennium to figure out but building a whole new kind of infrastructure is rarely smooth sailing if you enjoyed this video and you want to get more from the definitive video 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Channel: The B1M

Views: 3,916,738

Keywords: B1M, TheB1M, Construction, architecture, engineering, The B1M, Fred Mills, building, norway, stad ship tunnel, fjords, scandinavia, cruise ships, ship tunnel, world's first ship tunnel, stadhavet, tunnels, kystverket, norway coastal highway, shipping, vikings, snohetta, tom cruise, mission impossible

Id: Sfv0-WWxYNk

Length: 5min 34sec (334 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 14 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/ortusdux]

I fully expect to see this in a bond movie. Bond rappels down onto the boat and steal something with a gps tracker that doesn't work underground or something like that.

[u/ChristmasTreeFarmer]

I want to know more about that suspended coastal highway

[u/Nimonic]

It's not a cruise ship tunnel, it's just a ship tunnel that happens to be able to take some cruise ships.

Cruise ships are a blight, though. Hurtigruten may operate, but I wouldn't mind a complete ban other than that.

[u/BrokenGolfer]

Only $300m and 3 years?! Even if it goes over to $500m and 5 years that is still a hell of a deal... assuming there will be a charge to use the tunnel... it will pay it self off in no time.

[u/zimzilla]

26,6 m width is a bit narrow for modern cruise ships.

The ones in out harbor measure between 30 and 40+ m in width like the one shown at 5:17.

[u/gizmostuff]

I'm telling you, people just aren't going to grasp the largest cruise ship scale. Let's go with the Tom Cruise one...

[u/Training-Net-6452]

I hope they make 2 because if the Evergiven and the Suez canal taught me something...

[u/Flatened-Earther]

Waiting for the ship to get stuck..... /s

[u/willflungpoo]

Norway is just super cool. Keep it up Norway, you're doing great.