The Kristiansund Mainland Connection ( or abbreviated ''Krifast'') is a road system consisting of the

European route E39 European route E39 is the designation of a north–south road in Norway and Denmark from Klett, just south of Trondheim, to Aalborg via Bergen, Stavanger and Kristiansand. In total, there are nine ferries, more than any other single road in Eu ...

highway and

Norwegian National Road 70 National Road 70 ( no, Riksvei 70) is a long national highway that runs from the town of Kristiansund in Kristiansund Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county and the village of Oppdal in Oppdal Municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. The ro ...

that connects

Kristiansund Municipality Kristiansund (, ; historically spelled Christianssund and earlier named Fosna) is a municipality on the western coast of Norway in the Nordmøre district of Møre og Romsdal county. The administrative center of the municipality is the town of ...

to the neighboring islands of

Frei Frei is a former municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. The municipality existed from 1838 until its dissolution in 2008 when it was incorporated into Kristiansund Municipality. It was located between the Kvernesfjorden and Freifjo ...

, Bergsøya, and

Aspøya Aspøya is an artificial island in Tingvoll Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is located between the Freifjorden and the Tingvollfjorden. The European route E39 highway crosses Aspøya and connects it to the nearby island of ...

and then to the mainland of

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 t ...

. Krifast opened in 1992 and consists of of road and of bicycle paths. The three main structures are the

undersea The underwater environment is the region below the surface of, and immersed in, liquid water in a natural or artificial feature (called a body of water), such as an ocean, sea, lake, pond, reservoir, river, canal, or aquifer. Some characterist ...

Freifjord Tunnel The Freifjord Tunnel ( no, Freifjordtunnelen) is a long undersea tunnel under the Freifjorden in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. The tunnel is part of the Norwegian National Road 70. The tunnel begins on the island of Frei in Kristiansund Mun ...

, the

Gjemnessund Bridge The Gjemnessund Bridge ( no, Gjemnessundbrua) is a suspension bridge that crosses the Gjemnessundet strait between the mainland and the island of Bergsøya in the municipality of Gjemnes in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. The bridge was the ...

, and the

Bergsøysund Bridge The Bergsøysund Bridge ( no, Bergsøysundbrua) is a pontoon bridge that crosses the Bergsøysundet strait between the islands of Aspøya (in Tingvoll) and Bergsøya (in Gjemnes) in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. The bridge is long, the long ...

. A total of seven bridges are part of the ''Krifast'' system, the most famous one being the

suspension bridge A suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck (bridge), deck is hung below suspension wire rope, cables on vertical suspenders. The first modern examples of this type of bridge were built in the early 1800s. Simple suspension bridg ...

from the island of Bergsøya to the mainland of

Gjemnes Municipality Gjemnes is a municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway on the Romsdal peninsula. It is part of the Nordmøre region. The administrative centre is the village of Batnfjordsøra, which lies along the Batnfjorden and it is a former stea ...

, with high towers and a span between them of . There is also the long

pontoon bridge A pontoon bridge (or ponton bridge), also known as a floating bridge, uses float (nautical), floats or shallow-draft (hull), draft boats to support a continuous deck for pedestrian and vehicle travel. The buoyancy of the supports limits the maxi ...

called the

which goes between the islands of Bergsøya and

, which is the only bridge of its kind where nothing but the ends are anchored to solid rock. The bridge is supported by 7 pontoons, floating on a deep

fjord In physical geography, a fjord or fiord () is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Fjords exist on the coasts of Alaska, Antarctica, British Columbia, Chile, Denmark, Germany, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Ice ...

. The long underwater

goes under the

Freifjorden Freifjorden is a fjord in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. The long fjord flows through the municipalities of Kristiansund, Tingvoll, and Gjemnes. The fjord begins near the island of Tustna and flows southwest between the islands of Nordland ...

. It is reaches a depth of below sea level at its deepest point, though the bottom of the tunnel is in solid rock. A drive through the tunnel takes about 5 minutes. Because of the relatively steep climb, there are three lanes at each end, but only two at the bottom. Krifast was authorized by the

Norwegian Parliament The Storting ( no, Stortinget ) (lit. the Great Thing) is the supreme legislature of Norway, established in 1814 by the Constitution of Norway. It is located in Oslo. The unicameral parliament has 169 members and is elected every four years base ...

and construction began in October 1988. The government pledged to finance 39% of the expenses, the rest were to be taken in as

toll Toll may refer to: Transportation * Toll (fee) a fee charged for the use of a road or waterway ** Road pricing, the modern practice of charging for road use ** Road toll (historic), the historic practice of charging for road use ** Shadow toll, ...

on road traffic and car ferry fares (on the ferries to be discontinued due to the new tunnel and bridges). As of July 1991, the project employed 427 people, and spent daily on construction. Four years and NOK 1.1 billion later, in August 1992, Krifast was opened for regular traffic.

References

{{Bridge–tunnels Roads in Møre og Romsdal Nordmøre Buildings and structures in Kristiansund Gjemnes Former toll roads in Norway Bridge–tunnels in Europe 1992 establishments in Norway European route E39 in Norway Norwegian National Road 70

See also

References