The Halsnøy Tunnel () is a subsea road tunnel which connects the island of

Halsnøy Halsnøya or Halsnøy is an island in Kvinnherad municipality in Vestland county, Norway. The island lies between the Hardangerfjorden and Skånevikfjorden. The island has about 2,300 inhabitants (2008) and it is the most populated island in K ...

to the mainland in Kvinnherad Municipality in

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 in

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 northern end of the tunnel is at Sunde, just south of

Husnes Husnes is the largest village in Kvinnherad municipality in Vestland county, Norway. The village is located on the southern shore of the Hardangerfjorden on the Folgefonna peninsula, about south of the village of Herøysund and immediately north ...

, and the southern entrance to the tunnel is just north of the village of

Sæbøvik Sæbøvik is a village in Kvinnherad municipality in Vestland county, Norway. The village is located on the narrow, western part of the island of Halsnøya, about west of the village of Høylandsbygd and immediately east of the village of Eidsv ...

on Halsnøy. The long tunnel reaches a depth of below

mean sea level A mean is a quantity representing the "center" of a collection of numbers and is intermediate to the extreme values of the set of numbers. There are several kinds of means (or "measures of central tendency") in mathematics, especially in statist ...

. Located on County Road 500, it opened on 8 March 2008 and is as of May 2019 a

toll road A toll road, also known as a turnpike or tollway, is a public or private road for which a fee (or ''Toll (fee), toll'') is assessed for passage. It is a form of road pricing typically implemented to help recoup the costs of road construction and ...

. The project included of new road and cost 427 million

Norwegian krone The krone (, currency sign, abbreviation: kr (also NKr for distinction); ISO 4217, code: NOK), plural ''kroner'', is the currency of the Kingdom of Norway (including List of possessions of Norway, overseas territories and dependencies). It was t ...

. Prior to the opening of this tunnel in 2008, the island of Halsnøy was the most populous island in Norway with no road connection. As an

energy conservation Energy conservation is the effort to reduce wasteful energy consumption by using fewer energy services. This can be done by using energy more effectively (using less and better sources of energy for continuous service) or changing one's behavi ...

measure, the tunnel is not fully illuminated at night, but rather when a vehicle approaches the tunnel, sensors turn on the lights, and then when all vehicles have exited the tunnel, the lights turn off again. Initially planned as a tolled tunnel until 2023, it was later confirmed that the toll period would be extended until 2026 due to an increase in

electric cars An electric car or electric vehicle (EV) is a passenger automobile that is propelled by an electric traction motor, using electrical energy as the primary source of propulsion. The term normally refers to a plug-in electric vehicle, typ ...

, which are toll-exempt in Norway. In May 2019, however, it was announced that the tunnel would have its remaining debt erased, and would become toll-free starting 6 September 2019, four years earlier than originally planned.Kvinnheringen (Norwegian)
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References

Subsea tunnels in Norway Road tunnels in Vestland Kvinnherad 2008 establishments in Norway Tunnels completed in 2008 {{Vestland-geo-stub