The Hvalfjörður Tunnel ( ) is a subsea road tunnel under the

Hvalfjörður Hvalfjörður (, "whale fjord") is situated in the west of Iceland between Mosfellsbær and Akranes. The fjord is approximately long and wide. The origin of the name Hvalfjörður is uncertain. Certainly today there is no presence of whales i ...

fjord in

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

and a part of Route 1. It is long and reaches a depth of below sea level. Opened on 11 July 1998, it shortens the distance from

Reykjavík Reykjavík is the Capital city, capital and largest city in Iceland. It is located in southwestern Iceland on the southern shore of Faxaflói, the Faxaflói Bay. With a latitude of 64°08′ N, the city is List of northernmost items, the worl ...

to the western and northern parts of the country by . Passing the fjord now takes 7 minutes instead of about an hour. The tunnel was constructed as a private-public partnership (PPP) project, managed by the company Spölur, while the Verkís company handled almost all of the design. Spölur was also the owner and operator of the tunnel until 2018, when ownership and administration of the tunnel were transferred as planned to the Icelandic Road Administration (''Vegagerðin''). This project was a milestone in Icelandic construction as it was the first private finance initiative without direct funding by the state treasury.

Construction

The construction of the tunnel was started in 1996, and completed in 1998 at a cost of about ISK 5,000 million (USD 70 million). The tunnel was designed for annual average daily traffic of 5,000 vehicles. While the sub-sea tunnel deepest point is below sea level, the deepest sea depth is , and the minimum rock coverage is . The tunnel is a single bore with 2 lanes, except on the northern end of the tunnel where there are 3 lanes: 2 lanes on the uphill section and 1 lane downhill.

Tolls

The tunnel is toll free as of 28 September 2018, the date when the tunnel was turned over from the private operator Spölur to the Icelandic Road Administration (''Vegagerðin''). Previously, the toll for vehicles less than in length was ISK 1,000 (USD 9.80). Motorcycles and larger vehicles paid different tolls. Pedestrians and cyclists are not permitted. The money went to pay for the construction of the tunnel by Spölur. The original plan assumed it would take 20 years (until 2018) to pay back the cost of building the tunnel, but the traffic volume has proved to be significantly higher than originally projected. The volume of traffic is so high that the operator of the tunnel has suggested building a new tunnel alongside the current one because traffic is reaching the threshold mandated by a European regulation (8,000 vehicles daily) over which traffic in opposing directions should be separated.

Safety issues

The Hvalfjörður Tunnel received a bad rating in the 2010 European tunnel test, which is carried out annually by the German automobile club

ADAC The ADAC, officially the Allgemeiner Deutscher Automobil-Club (), is Europe's largest automobile association. The ADAC is the largest wikt:Verein, ''verein'' (club) in Germany, with around 21 million members. Its headquarters are located i ...

. Different aspects were criticized and are also mentioned in the EuroTAP test (see external links), especially the weak lighting, absence of an automatic fire alarm system, too weak ventilation in case of a fire and distance to the next fire station (). There are alcoves every to facilitate turning around, and the storage capacity for water leakage is . Between 2007 and 2013, several improvements to the tunnel's security were made, according to the newspaper ''

Morgunblaðið ''Morgunblaðið'' (, ''The Morning Paper'') is an Icelandic daily newspaper. ''Morgunblaðið''s website, mbl.is, is the most popular website in Iceland. It is currently the country's only daily printed newspaper and the newspaper of record. Hi ...

'' resulting in a doubling of the tunnel's security level. The improvements included better lighting, setting up a monitoring system, new emergency lights and more fire extinguishers. In 2020, improved LED lighting on lane shoulders was installed. In 2024, average speed cameras were installed in the tunnel.

Images

Hvalfjarðargöng.jpg, North entrance Middle of the Hvalfjörður tunnel, November 21 08-53.jpg, Middle of the tunnel (2007) Exit of the Hvalfjörður tunnel, November 21 08-55.jpg, Exit of the tunnel (2007)

References

External links