Last weekend, many motorists experienced standing in line for about an hour on the E18 south. This summer, the waiting time can be much longer, warns Nye Veier. They are building a new E18 with four lanes on a stretch between Porsgrunn and Bamble in Telemark. The construction will lead to a change in the route pattern at two critical locations at Langangen and Kjørholt / Grenlandsbrua. CRITICAL POINT: On the E18 at Langangen and at Grenlandsbrua / Kjørholt, there will be a detour and narrowing in connection with the construction of a new E18 this summer. Narrowing to two lanes already creates traffic problems on the road between Langangen and Lanner. Going forward, there will be more traffic jams and queues with changes and solutions that will lead to motorists having to slow down. – Summer traffic will have its challenges. In July, we must probably expect slow-moving queues in the area around Grenland, says Finn Ljøsne in Nye Veier. CHALLENGES: Finn Ljøsne in Nye Veier asks motorists to plan their trip at other times of the day than the busiest. Photo: Philip Hofgaard / NRK Weekend traffic to the south will probably be the worst, he reckons. Therefore, he encourages you to plan your trip at other times of the day, or find alternative routes. – They should consider what alternative routes there are, a bit depending on where you come from and where you are going to, he says. They ask people who want to stay up to date on the changes to subscribe to the free SMS alert service that has been created. Road chaos until 2025 The chaos of chaos does not stop immediately. The road project is part of the new E18 from Langangen to Dørdal in Agder, which will be completed on 1 July 2025. – During that period, there will be traffic challenges, says Ljøsne. But when the road is ready, the driving time will be reduced by 12 minutes on the entire stretch. The motorists save six minutes on the road being built from Langangen to Rugtvedt. TUNNEL: In total, the new road will have four new tunnels. Photo: Philip Hofgaard / NRK The project with three plots has a price tag of NOK 5 billion, and is the most expensive stretch in the E18 development. The new road here will have four new tunnels and three new bridges. Among other things, Grenlandsbrua will have a twin bridge. It is the tallest building in the country, with a 160 meter high tower. – Hopeless Motorists are surprised by the traffic chaos that can occur this summer. Spending up to two hours on the stretch is hopeless, says Tor Hurlen who has a cabin in Arendal. – Then it becomes cumbersome to get up and down. You have to investigate alternative routes or make sure to drive at times when there is not much traffic, he says. Atle Hammelhow-Berg fears that the long queues may affect people’s health. – It must be really bad at the beginning and end of weekends. We are used to queues here in connection with large outings. If there are two-hour queues and it is hot, there may be health challenges. It does not sound good, says Atle Hammelhow-Berg. CHARGING QUEUE: Andrej Tihomi hopes to avoid charging queues in addition to queue chaos this summer. Photo: Philip Hofgaard / NRK Andrej Thihomi still does not think there will be charging chaos at the stations. – It can be challenging, but I hope it will not be, says Andrej Tihomi.
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Expect queue chaos and up to two hours waiting time this summer – NRK Vestfold and Telemark – Local news, TV and radio
