The Lærdal Tunnel ( no, Lærdalstunnelen) is a road tunnel connecting the municipalities of

Lærdal Lærdal is a municipality in Vestland county, Norway. It is located on the south side of the Sognefjorden in the traditional district of Sogn. The administrative center of the municipality is the village of Lærdalsøyri. The old Filefjell Kong ...

and

Aurland Aurland () is a municipality in the county of Vestland, Norway. It is located on the south side of the Sognefjorden in the traditional district of Sogn. The administrative center is the village of Aurlandsvangen. Other villages include Bakka, ...

Vestland Vestland is a county in Norway established on 1 January 2020. The county is located in Western Norway and it is centred around the city of Bergen, Norway's second largest city. The administrative centre of the county is the city of Bergen, where t ...

county,

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 ...

, and located approximately northeast of Bergen. The tunnel carries two lanes of

European Route E16 European route E16 is the designation of a main west-east road through Northern Ireland, Scotland, Norway and Sweden, from Derry to Gävle, via Belfast, Glasgow, Edinburgh, previously by ferry to Bergen, Voss, through the Gudvanga Tunnel and th ...

and represents the final link on the main highway connecting

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

and

Bergen Bergen (), historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipality in Vestland county on the west coast of Norway. , its population is roughly 285,900. Bergen is the second-largest city in Norway. The municipality covers and is on the peninsula of ...

without ferry connections and difficult mountain crossings during winter. It is the longest road tunnel in the world, succeeding the Swiss Gotthard Road Tunnel. In 1975, the

Parliament of Norway 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 bas ...

decided that the main road between Oslo and Bergen would run via

Filefjell Filefjell is a mountainous area in Norway. It is located between Lærdal in the Vestland county and Valdres in Innlandet county. It is the historical, as well as modern, main route, linking Western Norway and Eastern Norway. The European route E16 ...

. In 1992, Parliament confirmed that decision, made the further decision that the road should run through a tunnel between Lærdal and Aurland, and passed legislation to build the tunnel. Construction started in 1995 and the tunnel opened in 2000. It cost 1.082 billion

Norwegian krone The krone (, abbreviation: kr (also NKr for distinction); code: NOK), plural ''kroner'', is currency of the Kingdom of Norway (including Svalbard). Traditionally known as the Norwegian crown in English. It is nominally subdivided into 100 ''� ...

($113.1M USD).

Design

A total of of rock was removed from the tunnel during its construction from 1995 to 2000. The tunnel begins just east of

Aurlandsvangen Aurlandsvangen () is the administrative center of Aurland Municipality in Vestland county, Norway. The village is located on the east side of the Aurlandsfjorden (a branch of the main Sognefjorden) where the Aurlandselvi river flows into the fjord ...

and goes through a mountain range and ends south of

Lærdalsøyri Lærdalsøyri is the administrative centre of Lærdal Municipality in Vestland county, Norway. The village is located along the Lærdalselvi river where it empties into the Lærdalsfjorden, a branch off of the main Sognefjorden. The village is lo ...

. The design of the tunnel takes into consideration the mental strain on drivers, so the tunnel is divided into four sections, separated by three large mountain caves at intervals. While the main tunnel has white lights, the caves have blue lighting with yellow lights at the fringes to give an impression of sunrise. The caves are meant to break the routine, providing a refreshing view and allowing drivers to take a short rest. The caverns are also used as turnaround points and for break areas to help lift

claustrophobia Claustrophobia is the fear of confined spaces. It can be triggered by many situations or stimuli, including elevators, especially when crowded to capacity, windowless rooms, and hotel rooms with closed doors and sealed windows. Even bedrooms with ...

during a 20-minute drive through the tunnel. In the tunnel, there is a sign on every kilometer indicating how many kilometers have already been covered, and also how many kilometers there are still to go. To keep drivers from being inattentive or falling asleep, each lane is supplied with a loud

rumble strip Rumble strips (also known as sleeper lines or alert strips) are a road safety feature to alert inattentive drivers of potential danger, by causing a tactile vibration and audible rumbling transmitted through the wheels into the vehicle interior. ...

towards the centre.

Safety

The tunnel does not have emergency exits. There are many safety precautions in case of accidents or fire.

Emergency phone An emergency telephone is a telephone, phone specifically provided for making calls to emergency services and is most often found in a place of special danger or where it is likely that there will be a need to make emergency calls. It is also so ...

s marked " SOS" are every for contacting the

police The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and t ...

fire department A fire department (American English) or fire brigade (Commonwealth English), also known as a fire authority, fire district, fire and rescue, or fire service in some areas, is an organization that provides fire prevention and fire suppression se ...

s, and

hospital A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment with specialized health science and auxiliary healthcare staff and medical equipment. The best-known type of hospital is the general hospital, which typically has an emerge ...

Fire extinguisher A fire extinguisher is a handheld active fire protection device usually filled with a dry or wet chemical used to extinguish or control small fires, often in emergencies. It is not intended for use on an out-of-control fire, such as one which ha ...

s are placed every . Whenever an emergency phone in the tunnel is used or a fire extinguisher is lifted, stop lights and electronic signs reading: (English: turn and exit) are displayed throughout the tunnel and two electronic signs on both sides of the entrance reading: (English: Tunnel closed). There are 15 turning areas which were constructed for buses and semi-trailers. In addition to the three large caverns, emergency niches have been built every . There are photo inspections and counting of all vehicles that enter and exit the tunnel at security centres in

and

. There is also special wiring in the tunnel for the use of

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...

and

mobile phone A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whil ...

Speed cameras A traffic enforcement camera (also red light camera, speed camera, road safety camera, road rule camera, photo radar, photo enforcement, Gatso, safety camera, bus lane camera, flash for cash, Safe-T-Cam, No contact apprehension camera depending ...

have been installed because of serious speeding. There are very few other completely straight roads in the region.

Air quality

High

air quality Air pollution is the contamination of air due to the presence of substances in the atmosphere that are harmful to the health of humans and other living beings, or cause damage to the climate or to materials. There are many different types ...

in the tunnel is achieved in two ways:

ventilation Ventilation may refer to: * Ventilation (physiology), the movement of air between the environment and the lungs via inhalation and exhalation ** Mechanical ventilation, in medicine, using artificial methods to assist breathing *** Ventilator, a m ...

and purification. Large fans draw air in from both entrances, and polluted air is expelled through the ventilation tunnel to Tynjadalen. The Lærdal Tunnel is the first in the world to be equipped with an air treatment plant, located in a wide cavern about northwest of

. The plant removes both dust and

nitrogen dioxide Nitrogen dioxide is a chemical compound with the formula . It is one of several nitrogen oxides. is an intermediate in the industrial synthesis of nitric acid, millions of tons of which are produced each year for use primarily in the producti ...

from the tunnel air. Two large fans draw air through the treatment plant, where dust and soot are removed by an

electrostatic filter An electrostatic precipitator (ESP) is a filterless device that removes fine particles, like dust and smoke, from a flowing gas using the force of an induced electrostatic charge minimally impeding the flow of gases through the unit. In cont ...

. Then the air is drawn through a large

carbon filter Carbon filtering is a method of filtering that uses a bed of activated carbon to remove impurities from a fluid using adsorption. Mechanism Carbon filtering works by adsorption, in which pollutants in the fluid to be treated are trapped inside th ...

, which removes the nitrogen dioxide.

Media gallery

Alfa Romeo 147 tunnel.JPG, A car parked in one of the tunnel caves Laerdalstunnel cave.jpg, View of one of the caves Lærdalstunnel.jpg, One of the Lærdalstunnel caves has blue lighting with yellow lights Lærdalstunnelen – der längste Straßentunnel der Welt.JPG, North portal Laerdalstunnelen.jpg, South portal

References

External links

World's longest Tunnel Page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Laerdal Tunnel Aurland Lærdal Road tunnels in Vestland 2000 establishments in Norway Tunnels completed in 2000 European route E16 in Norway