The Bjørvika Tunnel ( no, Bjørvikatunnelen) is a

motorway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway and expressway. Other similar terms i ...

immersed tunnel An immersed tube (or immersed tunnel) is a kind of undersea tunnel composed of segments, constructed elsewhere and floated to the tunnel site to be sunk into place and then linked together. They are commonly used for road and rail crossings of r ...

European Route E18 European route E18 runs from Craigavon in Northern Ireland to Saint Petersburg in Russia, passing through Scotland, England, Norway, Sweden and Finland. It is about in length. Although the designation implies the possibility of a through jour ...

in the city center of

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 ...

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 ...

. The tunnel has two bores, with three lanes in each. In the west, it connects to the

Festning Tunnel The Festning Tunnel ( no, Festningstunnelen) is a motorway tunnel on European Route E18 in the city center of Oslo, Norway. The tunnel has two tubes, with three lanes in each. It runs from Bjørvika, under Akershus Fortress, The City Hall Square ...

Akershus Fortress Akershus Fortress ( no, Akershus Festning, ) or Akershus Castle ( no, Akershus slott ) is a medieval castle in the Norwegian capital Oslo that was built to protect and provide a royal residence for the city. Since the Middle Ages the fortress h ...

and runs under the

Bjørvika Bjørvika is a neighborhood in the Sentrum borough of Oslo, Norway. The area is an inlet in the inner Oslofjord, situated between Gamlebyen and Akershus Fortress. It serves as an outlet for the river Akerselva. Since the 2000s, it has been und ...

arm of the

Oslofjord The Oslofjord (, ; en, Oslo Fjord) is an inlet in the south-east of Norway, stretching from an imaginary line between the and lighthouses and down to in the south to Oslo in the north. It is part of the Skagerrak strait, connecting the Nor ...

before ending in an intersection on the east shore, where it splits into Mosseveien (E18) and the Ekeberg Tunnel ( National Road 190). The tunnel is long, 675 meters of which run below sea level, and opened in September 2010. It was built by the

Norwegian Public Roads Administration The Norwegian Public Roads Administration ( no, Statens vegvesen) is a Norwegian government agency responsible for national and county public roads in Norway. This includes planning, construction and operation of the national and county road netw ...

The Bjørvika Tunnel is part of the Opera Tunnel complex which is the name of the interconnected system of tunnels between

Ryen Ryen () is a neighborhood in the borough Nordstrand. The area is served by the station Ryen of the Oslo T-bane. The eastern depot of the rapid transit system is located at Ryen. Until 1967, it was also served by Simensbråten of the Oslo Tramw ...

and

Filipstad Filipstad is a locality and the seat of Filipstad Municipality, Värmland County, Sweden, with 10,644 inhabitants in 2019. Filipstad was granted city privileges in 1611 by Charles IX of Sweden, who named it after his son Duke Carl Philip (1601&n ...

. The Bjørvika Tunnel is the first immersed tunnel in Norway. The tunnel's cost was estimated to be around , and was financed through

Oslo Package 1 Oslo Package 1 ( no, Oslopakke 1) was a political agreement and plan for introducing an urban toll ring around Oslo, Norway and making 31 investments to road infrastructure in Oslo and Akershus. The package was approved in 1988 and toll charges we ...

, with part of the funding coming from the city's toll ring. The project includes an additional of roads, of pedestrian and cycle paths and of bus lanes. The project will create a continuous tunnel from Framnes (at the Kiel ferry terminal) to

. The connection with the Festning Tunnel will require a sinking of the latter, and it will have a basement built under it.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bjorvika Tunnel Road tunnels in Oslo Subsea tunnels in Norway European route E18 in Norway Fjord City 2010 establishments in Norway Tunnels completed in 2010