European route E69 is an E-road between

Olderfjord Olderfjord ( sme, Leaibevuotna; fkv, Leipovuono) is a village in Porsanger in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. The village lies at the end of Olderfjorden on the eastern coast of the Porsanger Peninsula, along the shore of the Porsangerfjord ...

and North Cape in northern

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and th ...

. The road is long. It contains five tunnels, totalling . The longest, the North Cape Tunnel, is long and reaches below sea level. During the winter months is the northernmost part of the road (Skarsvåg-North Cape) available only to convoys, driving at fixed times, if weather permits. E69 is the northernmost road in the world with connections to a major international road network. Roads further north in locations including

Svalbard Svalbard ( , ), also known as Spitsbergen, or Spitzbergen, is a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. North of mainland Europe, it is about midway between the northern coast of Norway and the North Pole. The islands of the group rang ...

and

Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is ...

are isolated and short.

History

In the first version of the current E-road network established in 1975, E69 was a longer and completely different road from

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is official ...

Wiener Neustadt Wiener Neustadt (; ; Central Bavarian: ''Weana Neistod'') is a city located south of Vienna, in the state of Lower Austria, in northeast Austria. It is a self-governed city and the seat of the district administration of Wiener Neustadt-Land Distr ...

through Piotrków,

Katowice Katowice ( , , ; szl, Katowicy; german: Kattowitz, yi, קאַטעוויץ, Kattevitz) is the capital city of the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland and the central city of the Upper Silesian metropolitan area. It is the 11th most popu ...

, Český Těšín,

Žilina Žilina (; hu, Zsolna, ; german: Sillein, or ; pl, Żylina , names in other languages) is a city in north-western Slovakia, around from the capital Bratislava, close to both the Czech and Polish borders. It is the fourth largest city of Sl ...

Trenčín Trenčín (, also known by other alternative names) is a city in western Slovakia of the central Váh River valley near the Czech border, around from Bratislava. It has a population of more than 55,000, which makes it the eighth largest muni ...

Piešťany Piešťany (; german: Pistyan, hu, Pöstyén, pl, Pieszczany , cs, Píšťany ) is a town in Slovakia. It is located in the western part of the country within the Trnava Region and is the seat of its own district. It is the biggest and best kn ...

and

Bratislava Bratislava (, also ; ; german: Preßburg/Pressburg ; hu, Pozsony) is the capital and largest city of Slovakia. Officially, the population of the city is about 475,000; however, it is estimated to be more than 660,000 — approximately 140% of ...

. This route is now mostly part of E75, and that time, the E75 went through

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...

and

Banská Bystrica Banská Bystrica (, also known by other alternative names) is a middle-sized town in central Slovakia, located on the Hron River in a long and wide valley encircled by the mountain chains of the Low Tatras, the Veľká Fatra, and the Kremnica ...

, which is now part of E77. It was later modified south from

Mattersburg Mattersburg (; formerly ''Mattersdorf'', hu, Nagymarton, Croatian: ''Matrštof'') is a town in Burgenland, Austria. It is the administrative center of the District of Mattersburg and was home to former Bundesliga football team, SV Mattersburg. ...

. Instead of Wiener Neustadt, it went further to south touching Oberpullendorf and Oberwart following the Austrian route 50, ending in E66. This version was never signposted along roads, instead a modified version was implemented with E75 on this route. In the old version E-road network established in 1950, E69 went between Ålesund and Dombås in Norway, now E136. The Norwegian E69 was planned in the 1930s, particularly after a public meeting in Honningsvåg in 1934, as a means of drawing tourism to offset the loss of lucrative fishing rights. A ferry line was set up between Russenes near Olderfjord and Honningsvåg, a distance of around . The road between Honningsvåg and North Cape was opened in 1956. In 1968 the road was extended to a new ferry site at Kåfjord, and the ferry to Honningsvåg was shortened to . E69 was given its current route number in 1992. Before that, the road was number 95 in Norway. Since then, it has no distinct national number. The North Cape Tunnel and the Honningsvåg Tunnel were opened in 1999, thereby eliminating the ferry. From then to 29 June 2012, the North Cape Tunnel and adjacent tunnels were tolled. The near the southern end of E69 opened in 1968 and is a bottleneck. It is partly only wide, so wide vehicles cannot use it at the same time in opposite directions, and there is rockslide danger in the area. Therefore, a new tunnel is to be built in 2018–2021, which also will shorten the route by 2 km.

References

External links

UN Economic Commission for Europe: Overall Map of E-road Network (2007)
69 E069 E069 Roads within the Arctic Circle {{Norway-road-stub