Bjorøyna or Bjorøy is an

island An island or isle is a piece of land, distinct from a continent, completely surrounded by water. There are continental islands, which were formed by being split from a continent by plate tectonics, and oceanic islands, which have never been ...

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 mu ...

Vestland Vestland is a Counties of Norway, county in Norway. The county is located in Western Norway, and its administrative centre is Bergen, where the executive and political leadership is based. The County governor (Norway), County Governor is based in ...

county,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom 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 Øygarden. ...

, west of the

Bergen Peninsula The Bergen Peninsula (, ; ) is a peninsula in Vestland county, Norway. The city of Bergen, Norway's second largest city, is located on the peninsula. The peninsula extends out from the mainland and it is surrounded by the following fjords: Sam ...

, 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 ' Sotra' and ' Litlesotra' ('small Sotra') that are part of ...

. Bjorøy is connected to the mainland city of

Bergen Bergen (, ) is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestland county on the Western Norway, west coast of Norway. Bergen is the list of towns and cities in Norway, second-largest city in Norway after the capital Oslo. By May 20 ...

by a subsea

road tunnel A tunnel is an underground or undersea passageway. It is dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, or laid under water, and is usually completely enclosed except for the two portals common at each end, though there may be access and ve ...

called the

Bjorøy Tunnel The Bjorøy Tunnel () 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 Håkonshella and Hil ...

. Bjorøyis also connected to the small island of Tyssøy in the neighboring

Sund Sund may refer to: Places In northern Europe, there are more than a hundred straits named ''Sund'', see: Sound (geography). *Sund, Åland, a municipality in Finland * Sund, Norway, a former municipality in Vestland county, Norway * Sund, Flakstad, ...

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 seen 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 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 the

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 on ...

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 bed ...

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