Bømlafjord Tunnel
Entrance to the tunnel from Sveio
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| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Location | Sveio and Stord, Norway |
| Coordinates | 59°43′20″N 5°26′20″E / 59.72216°N 5.43896°ECoordinates: 59°43′20″N 5°26′20″E / 59.72216°N 5.43896°E |
| Route | E39 |
| Start | Føyno |
| End | Dalshovda |
| Operation | |
| Work begun | 16 September 1997 |
| Opened | 27 December 2000 |
| Operator | Norwegian Public Roads Administration |
| Toll | No |
| Vehicles per day | 4,974 (2016) |
| Technical | |
| Length | 7,820 m (25,660 ft) |
| No. of lanes | 3 |
| Operating speed | 80 km/h (50 mph) |
| Lowest elevation | −260.4 m (−854 ft) |
| Grade | 9% |
The Bømlafjord Tunnel (Norwegian: Bømlafjordtunnelen) is a subsea road tunnel under Bømlafjorden which connects the island of Føyno in Stord to the mainland at Dalshovda in Sveio, Norway. The tunnel is 7.82 kilometers (4.86 mi) long and reaches 260.4 m (854 ft) below mean sea level. It carries three lanes of European Road E39 and is part of the Triangle Link, a fixed link which connects Sunnhordland to Haugaland. Plans for the tunnel arose in the 1980s; construction started in 1997 and the tunnel opened on 27 December 2000. The tunnel was built using the drilling and blasting method, with two teams building from each end. The tunnel runs through an area composed mostly of gneiss, phyllite and greenstone. The tunnel is the longest subsea tunnel in Norway and was the second-deepest in the world until 2008. It is still (2013) the deepest point on the E-road network. The tunnel was a toll road from the opening until 30. April 2013. In 2012 the tunnel had an average 4,084 vehicles per day.
The background for the Triangle Link was the desire to have a fixed link between the islands of Stord and Bømlo. The first documented proposals were made in the 1960s and involved building a pontoon bridge across Stokksundet. Following the 1982 opening of the Vardø Tunnel—the first subsea tunnel in Norway—Engineer Finn Nitter d.e. proposed a fixed link between the two islands. It would have crossed Digernessundet on a suspension bridge and continued along a causeway and low bridge onwards to a 2.2-kilometer-long (1.4 mi) subsea tunnel under Spissøysundet and a low bridge over Gassasundet. In addition, a 7.5-kilometer (4.7 mi) long tunnel would have been built from Føyno to Ulveråker in Sveio. The company Johannes Sørlie launched an all-tunnel proposal in 1985, estimated to cost 700 million Norwegian krone (NOK) and which would have resulted in 18 kilometers (11 mi) of subsea tunnel connecting Bømlo, Stord and the mainland. An inter-municipal committee was positive to the proposals, while Josef Martinsen, director of Hordaland Public Roads Administration, stated that the project was unrealistic. The limited company Ytre Sunnhordland Bru- og Tunnelselskap AS (SBT) was founded in October 1986 by the municipal authorities of Bømlo, Stord, Fitjar and Sveio, Hordaland County Municipality and five banks.
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