The case in summary: The cost of upgrading Norwegian county roads has increased by almost half a billion after the extreme weather “Hans”. Iselin Vistekleiven (Ap) fears that lives may be lost when the emergency information does not reach vegans. Before the extreme weather “Hans”, between NOK 80 and 90 billion was missing to upgrade county roads across the country. The backlog on maintenance of county roads in the interior is NOK 7 to 8 billion. The state is being urged to contribute more to equip vegans to withstand more rainfall and extreme weather. County roads must be dimensioned to withstand larger amounts of water. The summary is made by an AI service from OpenAI. The content is quality assured by news’s journalists before publication. Rain. Fluff. Landslide. Extreme weather. In other words, the inhabitants of large parts of the country gradually feel the consequences of In August last year, Austlandet was hit hard by the extreme weather “Hans”. This year too, the rain has created challenges in many places. First in Telemark this summer, before Innlandet got its share in September. Among other things, the E6 at Ringebu, and in Ringsaker and Gausdal. The road network was perhaps the worst. Now the government is proposing an increase of 11.4 per cent in the budget for county roads in 2025. That is almost half a billion more than this year. Big differences Next year’s subsidy for Norwegian county roads will total NOK 4.16 billion, NTB reports. The money will mainly go to maintenance, landslide protection and tunnel improvements. NOK 50 million of the county road money will go to a new subsidy scheme for 14 bridges that are critical to the needs of the Armed Forces. The Government’s proposal follows up on the National Transport Plan for 2025–2026, which calls for an increase of NOK 1 billion in annual average in the first six-year period of the plan. The government recognizes that there are increasing differences in standards between national roads and county roads, and that the county has challenges in maintaining its road network. There are also large differences between the counties. In the interior, a total of 30 county roads suffered major damage in 40 different places in the heavy rain on 9-10 September. Eight of these vegans are still closed. In addition, a number of municipal roads were damaged. The rainy weather on the night of 10 September was hard on vegans in the interior. This picture is from Gausdal. Photo: Aleksandr Nedbaev / news Ropar varsku Iselin Vistekleiven (Ap) has the political responsibility for over 7,000 kilometers of county roads in the interior. It is the most in the country. She believes that the road situation in the interior is critical: – Lives can be lost when emergency information does not reach vegans. Now we experience that this happens twice in one year, and everything indicates that it could happen again, says Vistekleiven. Even before the extreme weather “Hans” last year, between NOK 80 and 90 billion was missing to upgrade county roads across the country. Iselin Vistekleiven (Ap) is leader of the main committee for transport in Innlandet county municipality. Arne Fredheim is section manager for roads in the same city. Photo: Arne Sørenes / NRKIselin Vistekleiven (Ap) is head of the main committee for transport in Innlandet county municipality. Arne Fredheim is section manager for roads in the same city. Photo: Arne Sørenes / news This is according to section manager Arne Fredheim in Innlandet County Municipality. He has professional responsibility for the road network in the interior. – Inland alone, there is a backlog of 7 to 8 billion, he says. In addition, “Hans” cost at least NOK 400 million. – We are still short of around 70 million of these, says Fredheim. And as if that wasn’t enough, the bill after the last rainy season in September seems to be at least NOK 50 million. That doesn’t make the situation any better, Fredheim believes: – Then we end up running after it with a shovel of asphalt and filling holes or changing gutters, instead of working on prevention, he says. An excavator works on Storlisvegen in Ringsaker. Photo: Arne Sørenes / NRKE An excavator works on Storlisvegen in Ringsaker. Photo: Arne Sørenes / news The government has previously given money to rebuild roads and bridges that were destroyed by extreme weather “Hans”, but only at the lowest rate. In other words, the money does not cover extra measures to prevent future storms Need more money to prevent Iselin Vistekleiven says that the county council has contacted the Ministry of Transport, and that they had a meeting earlier this week. The idea is that the State needs to be stronger on the track if one is to succeed in equipping vegans to tolerate more rainfall and extreme weather. – We should rebuild the destroyed vegans and start preventing them so that vegans can better tolerate this type of weather, instead of repairing again and again and again. More money is needed for that. Because the coffers of the county council are empty. She says that the signal from the top is that they are taken seriously. – The ministry will now look into the matter and then they will come back with a more concrete answer. So far, the Ministry of Transport has not confirmed this to news. Storlisvegen in Ringsaker, which is part of county road 1684, is still closed after the rain on 10 September. Photo: Arne Sørenes / NRKStorlisvegen in Ringsaker, which is part of county road 1684, is still closed after the rain on 10 September. Photo: Arne Sørenes / news Must tolerate more water Arne Fredheim kicks in the gravel. The question he has been asked is what the road standard is like in the interior right now. – It could be far better, is the short answer. Fredheim has brought Vistekleiven with him to show the extent of repairs at county road 1684 outside Brumuddal in Ringsaker. Parts of the road were taken by the rainy weather in September. Here, the gutters have now been sized up so that they can take away larger amounts of water. Iselin Vistekleiven and Arne Fredheim discuss what needs to be done to protect vegans from flaking in the future. Photo: Arne Sørenes / NRKIselin Vistekleiven and Arne Fredheim discuss what is needed to protect vegans from flaking in the future. Photo: Arne Sørenes / news – It is to secure ourselves for the future, he says. – This is a good example of how we want to repair in order to prevent, says Iselin Vistekleiven. But the money is not enough if this is to be done everywhere, says Fredheim. – Basically, we lack the means to do this. Both to repair, but also to enable vegans to tolerate the rainfall we have seen in recent years. We just have to count on us getting more of them, he says. Published 30.09.2024, at 07.39
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90 billion missing for county roads in Norway. Iselin Vistekleiven (Ap) fears lives may be lost – news Innlandet – Local news, TV and radio
