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Norway Is Building The World's First 'Floating' Underwater Tunnels (thenextweb.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the underwater-in-debt dept.

An anonymous reader writes from a report via The Next Web: Norway plans to build "submerged floating bridges" to allow drivers to cross its bodies of water. The Next Web reports: "The 'submerged floating bridges' would consist of large tubes suspended by pontoon-like support structures 100 feet below water. Each will be wide enough for two lanes of traffic, and the floating structures should ease the congestion on numerous ferries currently required to get commuters from Point A to Point B. Each support pontoon would then be secured to a truss or bolted to the bedrock below to keep things stable." A trip from Kristiansand to Trondheim is roughly 680 miles and could take as long as 21 hours due to the seven ferry trips required along the way. While building normal bridges would cost significantly less than the $25 billion in funds required for the tunnel project, the fjords and difficult terrain make them unsuitable candidates. The pricey tunnel project could cut the trip time to just 10 hours when it's expected to be finished in 2035.

3 of 84 comments (clear)

  1. It only takes 10 hours to make this trip currently by Isca · · Score: 5, Informative

    You can already make this trip on a highway that is 4 lanes for a large portion of it by going up through oslo and central Norway. The reason it would take so long with the path they are wanting to connect is that this path is along the coast. Even after getting rid of the ferries it's still going to be winding and longer mileage. I suppose the coast might be a bit warmer and less likely to have winter conditions, but a gale along the coast already shuts down the highway in quite a few parts as it is.

    They really just want to connect all the cities along the coast without having to take a ferry (down if bad weather) or having to drive a hundred kilometers or more inland and back out again.

  2. Re:The road to Trondheim by Per+Bothner · · Score: 3, Informative
    The article is misleading in suggesting that driving from Kristiansand to Trondheim currently takes about 20 hours. It does that if you roughly follow the coastline. However, there is already a much faster route going through Oslo.

    Where floating tunnels may make sense is for shorter trips - for example Bergen to Ålesund.

  3. Misleading title, it is 1 of 4 proposals by ThatsMyNick · · Score: 5, Informative

    Here is Norwegian Public Roads Administration video of the proposals. The underwater tunnel is one of the four proposals https://www.youtube.com/watch?... (great watch)

    There is no decision on which of those will be implemented yet. Article is simply running with the fanciest option.