On Tuesday night, all traffic over the bridge on E6 in Kvænangen was closed after it suffered a serious break in the middle. Bridge experts at the Norwegian Public Roads Administration have concluded that the damage is so great that it cannot be saved. – The construction damage is so serious that the bridge cannot be repaired. We are now considering whether we should let the bridge collapse by itself, or whether we should take it down, says Frode Lyng Hansen in the Norwegian Public Roads Administration. – When will the bridge collapse? – We do not know. We are very unsure if it will collapse, or if it will be able to stand it off. For now, we will not help it along the way. The Norwegian Public Roads Administration can not yet say what is the reason why the bridge is about to collapse. Frode Lyng Hansen from the Norwegian Public Roads Administration can still not say anything about the cause of the use collapse. Photo: Julie Groseth The Armed Forces is in place Now the Armed Forces’ Engineer Battalion has arrived at the site of its own interest. They have not received any formal inquiries to help, says Chief of Staff of the Engineering Battalion, Johan Nygaard. – We have been asked by the brigade and the battalion leadership to check out the information we already have, that we can still support a military transfer one way or the other in this area. The engineering battalion has arrived at the scene, to see if a military transfer will be possible if necessary. Photo: Rune Andreassen / NRK Reserve bridge on the way A temporary bridge will most likely be in place within two weeks. – New temporary bridge was ordered yesterday, is loaded on a trailer and on its way up here. It comes in sections, like a building set, he says. Acting municipal director, Bjørn Ellefsæter, says it is frightening how vulnerable things are when this bridge breaks down. He thinks it is a long time to wait for 14 days for a new bridge. – We think it works for a long time, fourteen days without the connection is a long time. We hope that the construction time can be shorter. Acting municipal director, Bjørn Ellefsæter, believes it is a long time to wait 14 days for a new bridge. Photo: Dagny Elisabeth Ulland / NRK – Emergency preparedness is taken care of – Emergency preparedness is taken care of on both sides of the bridge, says department head in AMK Tromsø, Inger-Lise Kristiansen about the bridge collapse in Kvænangen. The local ambulance is located on the north side of the bridge, it will transport patients to Alta for possible air transport to the hospital. On the south side of the bridge, the ambulance from Nordreisa is on standby. – We also have MS Kvænangen which is based on Skjervøy. It goes on a route to Kvænangen. Patients who are to be returned to the municipality can be sent by ambulance to Skjervøy, also by boat from there to Kvænangen. Kristiansen says that it is not relevant to drive patients via Finland. Medicine carrier and fire prevention Per Reiersen on the boat with which he transports medicine. Photo: Øystein Antonsen / NRK Carries medicine by boat Per Reiersen works as a fire prevention officer in Kvænangen municipality. Now he has also become a medical carrier for home nursing. The home nursing has transported the medicine from Burfjord to the spring, where Reiersen transports it by boat over to the home nursing which is stuck on the other side of the bridge. – It is very important that people get their medicine. They could have received from Nordreisa, but it is best that people get their usual home nurses to visit, says Reiersen. Troms and Finnmark are divided in two after the Badderen bridge was closed on Tuesday night. Now you have to drive a 600 kilometer long detour. Fast boat becomes school boat For transport around the quarry site, the municipality has established a temporary solution with boat transport between Badderen boat harbor and the shore in Sætra. Now the speedboat MS Kvænangen will be used to transport schoolchildren past the collapsed bridge in Kvænangen, says Kurt Bones, general manager of Troms County Traffic. – It will go from a fish farm in Badderen to Burfjord, where the school is located. A bus will also transport the students to the quay. Cannot deliver groceries Brukollapsen creates challenges for the transport of goods to and from Finnmark. Kurt Sørensen has driven all the way from Denmark with groceries going to Alta and Hammerfest. Now he is stuck, waiting for a message from the boss about what to do next. He does not see driving via Finland as an alternative. – It’s some shit, it’s not good, says a clearly frustrated Sørensen. Not unknown issue Eirik Losnegaard Mevik is mayor of Kvænangen municipality. He describes the situation as dramatic. – It is dramatic that the road divides the country in two, and that it can be up to 14 days of closure. It is very special, says the mayor. Mayor of Kvænangen municipality, Eirik Losnegaard Mevik, describes the situation as dramatic. Photo: Hanne Wilhelms / NRK Furthermore, he says that they are not an unknown issue for the municipality. The mountain pass over Kvænangsfjellet is often closed in winter due to the risk of avalanches. Nevertheless, it is the first time that the municipality also experiences being split in two. – This time we must also find solutions internally in the municipality. Usually it is in and out of the municipality that is the problem, Mevik explains. – Must not happen again Martin Grønnslett is chairman of the board of Samferdselsforum Nord. Their goal is to bring together politicians and the business community on common transport solutions for northern Norway. He fears several incidents such as the one in Kvænangen. – I do not come to any places where we are more vulnerable to such incidents. He points out that E6 is the main artery that binds the country together. Elsewhere, there are mostly detours if the road is closed for various reasons. Here you have to enter another country. – Measures must be initiated immediately, and furthermore, the Norwegian Public Roads Administration must ensure a permanent and future solution that prevents this from happening again, he says in a statement. Storting representative Erlend Svardal Bøe (H) has submitted questions to Minister of Transport Jon-Ivar Nygård (Labor Party) after the collapse of use. He asks what the Minister thinks about the vulnerability of the road section, and what measures he will initiate to restore the section as soon as possible. – It is also important that the government starts the work of putting in place a new and permanent solution on the road section as soon as possible, Svardal Bøe writes to the Minister. The pillar below has moved, thus the bridge has sunk. Photo: Nils Arild Nilsen
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It will take two weeks before a new, temporary bridge over Badderen in Kvænangen is in place, says the Norwegian Public Roads Administration – NRK Troms and Finnmark
