Major Danish projects
Two major underground projects are under construction in Denmark. The $800m Copenhagen metro will be 13km long, 7.5km of which will consist of twin-tube tunnels driven beneath the city streets; a further 5.5km will be on elevated track. At present, the project is approximately at the half way mark. The Øresund Tunnel, part of the Øresund Fixed Link that will link Denmark and Sweden, is in the final stages of fitting out and will be opened to both road and rail traffic on July 1 2000. This 3.7km tunnel is the world’s largest immersed tunnel in terms of volume.
Preliminary studies that have been carried out for a link between Denmark and Germany over the Femer Belt have considered both bored and immersed tube options as well as bridge designs. A tunnel is also being considered between two of the Faeroe Islands which belong to Denmark and a situated off the north coast of Scotland.
Environmental considerations in Finland
There are often environmental reasons for underground projects in Finland. Road and rail tunnels are often chosen to enable continued unhindered use of the countryside for both people and wildlife, while underground facilities make effective use of space in urban environments.
A number of road tunnels are either under way or planned. One is a major road tunnel now being constructed as part of Ring Road 1 in Espoo, a community to the west of Helsinki, and a further two road tunnels are planned for the improvement of Ring Road 1 around the town. There is also a motorway road tunnel under construction on Highway 1 between the cities of Helsinki and Turku. In addition, the municipalities of Helsinki and Espoo have recently decided to prepare a preliminary design for extending the Helsinki Metro to Espoo.
A number of underground facilities are planned. In Espoo, an underground car park is being constructed that will also serve as a civil defence shelter. Another civil defence shelter is being built in the Helsinki district of Merihaka. It will normally be used for car parking and as a sports centre.
Work is to start in April this year on an extension of the Viikinmäki underground wastewater treatment plant, which will enlarge the plant by 185 000m³. The work will take 21 months.
Road tunnels planned in Iceland
In February this year, the Icelandic Public Roads Administration presented a proposal to the government for road tunnels for the next 30 years, with a total length of 100-200km and an estimated cost of $1bn. A final decision will be taken on this programme in the Icelandic parliament this month.
The first two projects are planned to start in 2002. One consists of a 5.3km long tunnel on the east coast of Iceland and will link two fjords. The other project on the north of the island will consist of two individual tunnels, one 4km long and the other 6km. Both these projects are intended to help stem the flow of people from the rural areas to the capital Reykjavik. It is official policy to encourage people to remain in the smaller communities by improving communications between outlying areas.
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“. . . tunnels are often chosen to enable continued unhindered use of the countryside for both people and wildlife” |
A hydro power station planned for the north east of Iceland, which has already been submitted for pre-tender, includes a 32km long tunnel to be constructed by TBM, the first tunnel in Iceland to be excavated using this method. A final decision on the financing of this project will be made this spring and the project is planned to start later this year.
Road tunnelling under way in Norway
There are a number of major road tunnels in the finishing stages. The largest of these is the Laerdal Tunnel, which, at 24.5km, will be the longest road tunnel in the world when it opens in 2001. This tunnel forms part of the trunk road between Bergen and Oslo and has a project value of approximately $130m.
The Norwegian government has a policy of improving communications between isolated communities. One such scheme is the 7831m long Bomlafjord Road Tunnel that forms part of the Three Island Connection that will link an island community of 30 000 inhabitants to the Norwegian mainland south of Bergen. Project cost is $32m. Approximately 48% of a new 27km long road connection about 40km south of Oslo will consist of tunnels, the major one being the 7.2km long Oslo Fjord Road Tunnel. The whole project has a budget of $150m and the planned opening date is July 2000.
Major tunnelling schemes planned include: a 650m long immersed tunnel in the centre of Oslo (the first immersed tube to be built in Norway) with an estimated construction start in 2002; a new double-track rail line between Oslo and the western suburb of Asker, mostly in tunnel, planned to start in 2001-2002; and a floating submerged tunnel proposed across Høgsfjord, a deep fjord near Stavanger.
Infrastructure improvements in Sweden
A number of major infrastructure projects involving underground construction are currently under way or planned in Sweden. The biggest road project is the $800m Stockholm Southern Link scheme, which forms part of a planned ring road round Stockholm. The Southern Link will be approximately 6km long, the major part being in tunnel. Planning is currently under way for the Northern Link section of the ring road and this, too, will be in tunnel.
A similar investment in transport communications being undertaken in Gothenburg will include the 3.3km long Göta Road Tunnel.
A number of rail projects involving tunnels are both in progress and being planned. The largest of these is the $945m Botnia Rail Line in the north of Sweden. It will be 190km long and will include 30km of tunnels. Among the first of the contracts to be awarded was a $7m project for the 1100m long Kalldal rock tunnel, located about 10km north of Örnsköldsvik. A rail project currently in planning is the Malmö City Rail Tunnel, which will connect the centre of Malmö with the Öresund bridge and Copenhagen.
Two storage caverns are under construction, one close to Halmstad for the high-pressure storage of gas and the other at Oskarshamn for the interim storage of spent nuclear fuel.
Related Files
The five countries comprising the Nordic region
