Who will take over the responsibility for a fifty-year-old bridge whose repair and maintenance will probably cost over NOK 600 million? This is the “offer” Vestland County fears to receive from the Norwegian state. – We see in several counties a general tendency for the state to try to push costs down to county municipalities, says section manager John Martin Jacobsen in the road department in the county. They have now written letters to the Norwegian Public Roads Administration. There they state that the county council does not want to take over responsibility for the state’s old bridge west of Bergen. The Sotra bridge is today a bottleneck for cars and buses to and from Bergen during rush hour. Photo: Christian Lura / news Bottleneck becomes a cost bomb The Sotra bridge on national road 555 connects Øygarden municipality to the mainland and Bergen. The bridge is a narrow bottleneck which during rush hour causes major queuing problems in and out of Bergen. This winter, the construction of the new Sotra Samband started, which will remove or reduce the queues. On 1 June 2027, a new four-lane bridge with a public transport lane and cycle path will open. The Swedish Road Administration’s plan is then to reclassify the old bridge from a national road to a county road. This means that the county “gets” the road. But Vestland county council is already saying no to such a “gift”, because with ownership comes responsibility for operation, maintenance and rehabilitation. – No, I dare not accept such a cost bomb. The state must also own that bridge in the future, because there is so much uncertainty about the technical condition of the bridge and what it will cost to upgrade and keep the bridge as it is, says Jacobsen. The state must cover the costs of refurbishing or possibly demolishing the old Sotrabrua, Vestland county council believes. Photo: Simon Skjelvik Brandseth / news It costs 600 million to upgrade In the letter, Vestland points out that in 2015 it emerged that “the Sotra bridge will undergo extensive rehabilitation in the near future. Wedding cover and tower must be repaired.’ Five years later, in 2020, the Norwegian Road Administration made a rough estimate of the maintenance and upgrading needs of the Sotra bridge. The total cost was estimated at just over NOK 500 million plus VAT, i.e. over NOK 600 million. – These are expenses that the state must cover in full and that the county council cannot or will not prioritise, says Jacobsen. Section leader John Martin Jacobsen calls Sotrabrua a cost bomb that it is out of the question for Vestland County Council to take over responsibility for. Photo: Vestland County Municipality 5,600 damaged bridges news reported a year ago that 5,600 Norwegian bridges have damage that impairs traffic safety, and 1,000 of the bridges have damage that threatens the very foundations of the bridge. This is a fundamental reason for the skepticism about taking over the old Sotrabrua. Close to 800 of the approximately 2,000 bridges on the county roads in Vestland are in great or very great need of maintenance. The backlog is closer to NOK 4 billion. – We must prioritize these, and not take over even more old bridges, says Jacobsen. He calls for how the Swedish Road Administration will solve the problem. – We have repeatedly asked them to clarify both the ownership of the current Sotra bridge, and the financing of maintenance and upgrading of the bridge. So far, little has happened. The new Sotrasambandet has not budgeted to cover the costs of upgrading the current Sotrabru. Swedish Road Administration: – Too early to answer Lene Sælen Rivenes is the Swedish Road Administration’s project manager for the new Sotra association. – We take it as the reason they don’t want to take over the bridge is the standard of the construction, which is now fifty years old, she says to news. She invites dialogue. – Here we have to have a dialogue with the county council about the standard and what needs to be done so that the existing bridge can become a county road. Project manager Lene Sælen Rivenes in the Norwegian Public Roads Administration does not know what needs to be done on the old Sotra bridge before the county can take over the bridge, or what it will cost. Photo: Norwegian Road Administration She cannot comment on the cost estimate of over NOK 600 million. – It is difficult to answer today, because we do not have updated figures. A new cost estimate will be made when the formal reclassification process starts. – But is it understandable that they are afraid of taking over a maintenance backlog from the state? – They have the opportunity to express themselves when the conversion to a county road comes up for consultation. I think they need to read the document carefully and make a statement based on it, says Rivenes. She says the formal process within the Swedish Road Administration will be started “soon”.
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The county does not want the Sotra bridge, which must be fixed at a cost of NOK 600 million – news Vestland
