Bjorøyna or Bjorøy is an

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An isla ...

Øygarden Municipality Øygarden is a municipality in Vestland county, Norway. It is an island municipality located in the traditional district of Midhordland, stretching along the west coast of the county. The village of Straume is the administrative centre of the ...

Vestland Vestland is a Counties of Norway, 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 cit ...

county,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, 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 ...

. The island is located south of the island of

Litlesotra Litlesotra, or sometimes Lille Sotra, is an island in Øygarden Municipality in Vestland county, Norway. It is part of the Sotra island group which makes up the southern part of a larger archipelago of islands from Fedje south through Øygar ...

, west of the Bergen Peninsula, north of the island of Tyssøyna, and east of the island of

Sotra Sotra or Store Sotra is the name of a large island in Øygarden Municipality in Vestland county, Norway, located just west of the city of Bergen. It is part of a pair of islands called 'Store Sotra, Sotra' and 'Litlesotra' ('small Sotra') that a ...

. Bjorøy is connected to the mainland city of

Bergen Bergen (), historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestland county on the Western Norway, west coast of Norway. , its population is roughly 285,900. Bergen is the list of towns and cities in Norway, secon ...

by a subsea

road tunnel A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube cons ...

called the

Bjorøy Tunnel The Bjorøy Tunnel ( no, Bjorøytunnelen) is a subsea road tunnel in Vestland county, Norway. The tunnel is part of the Norwegian County Road 5236 which connects the island of Bjorøy in the municipality of Øygarden to the mainland near Håko ...

. It is also connected to the small island of

Tyssøy Tyssøyna or Tyssøy is an island in Øygarden Municipality in Vestland county, Norway. The island lies in the northern part of the Raunefjorden. The island has a population of about 70 and it is connected to the neighboring island of Bjor ...

in neighboring Sund municipality by a bridge. Bjorøy has 878 inhabitants (September 2012), and several hundred vacation cabins.

History

Due to its favourable location, proximity to Bergen, and the construction of the tunnel, the island has in recent years been seeing strong population growth. To prevent uncontrolled development, a building ban was instituted in 2007 but was later removed. The ban was instituted after a non-legally binding cap that only allowed ten new houses to be built on the island per year. The purpose was to ensure that the population growth did not surpass the growth of drinking water availability and kindergarten capacity (among other things), but the cap proved to be ineffective.

Geography

Bjorøy is located in the

Raunefjorden Raunefjorden is a strait (even though it is called a fjord) in Vestland county, Norway. The wide strait flows between the mainland Bergen Peninsula and the island of Sotra. Bergen Municipality is located on the east side on the mainland and Øy ...

between the island of

Store Sotra Sotra or Store Sotra is the name of a large island in Øygarden Municipality in Vestland county, Norway, located just west of the city of Bergen. It is part of a pair of islands called 'Sotra' and 'Litlesotra' ('small Sotra') that are part of a ...

and Bergen. Although Bjorøy is connected only to Bergen by road, the island is part of Øygarden municipality. To get to the rest of the municipality, Bjorøy's residents must drive north into Bergen, then west over a bridge to get back to Øygarden. To the south of Bjorøy is the smaller island of Tyssøy. Tyssøy is connected to Bjorøy by a bridge which is in turn connected to Bergen by a tunnel.

Transport

The subsea tunnel Bjorøytunnelen was opened in 1996, replacing the ferry between the island and

Alvøen Alvøen or Alvøy is a manor house located on a historic industrial site in the Laksevåg borough of the city of Bergen in Vestland county, Norway. Alvøen Manor was once one of the grander private homes in Bergen. History Alvøen is the site o ...

in Bergen. Plans for a tunnel connecting Bjorøy with Bergen were presented in the late 1980s. By the early 1990s, the island's population had been decreasing for several years, and the sole grocery store on the island closed in 1991. In 1993, the Norwegian government approved the plans for the tunnel, and construction began the same year. The construction of the tunnel proved challenging: the

bedrock In geology, bedrock is solid rock that lies under loose material ( regolith) within the crust of Earth or another terrestrial planet. Definition Bedrock is the solid rock that underlies looser surface material. An exposed portion of be ...

quality was worse than anticipated. Delayed by almost a year, the tunnel finally opened on 7 May 1996.

References

Øygarden Islands of Vestland {{Vestland-geo-stub