The 2.7-ton stone thunders into the aluminum plate. He bounced up and down a bit, before settling down. During the construction, it is thought that both cars, buses and light traffic can pass. Without them being injured by stones that suddenly come from a mountainside. – I am surprised at how little a car roof tolerates, says Kjell Fylkesnes. A lorry gains speed after a rock weighing 2.7 tonnes is dropped over the roof. Photo: Lars Melkevik / Bypass The founder and former car dealer goes through a quarry at Stord in Vestland. Cars are lined up around him. All with broken roofs and windows after the company has tested how stones, dropped from great heights, affect the cars. The result surprises them. – Car manufacturers have done a lot to protect cars against collisions. But the roof itself doesn’t have that much strength, he believes. Kjell Fylkesnes has sold cars for over 40 years. He believes the car industry has not done much to make stronger roofs. Photo: Eli Bjelland / news Rasfylket Vestland Last week large masses of rock collapsed over the E16 in Aurland. The slide closed the main road between Bergen and Oslo from Saturday to Monday afternoon. This time no lives were lost. In Region West (Vestland and Rogaland) alone, 775 landslide points have been defined along national and county roads, according to the Norwegian Road Administration. There are over 1,700 such points throughout Norway. Securing Norwegian roads against landslides and landslides is estimated to cost between NOK 80 and 90 billion, according to the National Landslide Protection Group. Here, large rocks have fallen into the roadway on Rv 13 in Ullensvang. Photo: Steinar Freyr Sigurðsson This is what the rules say about avalanche shelters Photo: Åge André Breivik / news There are a total of 116 avalanche shelters in Norway today, according to the National Road Administration. 109 of these are in concrete, 6 are in steel, and one is in wood (Fjågesund). There is handbook NV400 on bridge design which provides guidelines for how to build landslide superstructures. It states, among other things, that the landslide superstructure must be built where the road passes a natural avalanche course, or in terrain where there is fallout of rock or ice from cliffs or steep mountain sides. It also states that the building must be designed so that landslides pass over the building as unobstructed as possible in order to reduce the load. The handbook states that the use of aluminum must be confirmed in writing with the Norwegian Roads Directorate before starting design. In the previously published handbook 100 from 1989 on landslide superstructures, it is stated that cast-in-place concrete structures have proven to be the most suitable. Source: Norwegian Road Administration Will challenge concrete The solution to secure these points could be tunnels, safety nets and, not least, superstructures. And this is where the car salesman from Stord wants to enter the picture, together with both geologists and representatives of the aluminum industry. For two and a half years, they have worked with a full-scale test rig. Here the test rig is ready. The founders behind it have spent around two and a half years on the trial. Photo: Eli Bjelland / news And during the last few weeks, they have carried out several tests where large stones are dropped from a mobile crane from different heights. The aim is simply to see if concrete can be challenged as a material for landslide superstructures. – The tests have gone very well so far. The anchoring in the rock wall is holding well, and no stones have ended up in the road, says Kjell Fylkesnes. – You are a former car salesman. Are you the right person to develop avalanche shelters? – I am only a small piece in this. We have with us both geologists, mountain protection experts and people from the aluminum industry, he replies. Geologist: Thinking too conservatively Harald Hauso, geologist in Vestland County Municipality, welcomes a new product. – The need for avalanche protection is enormous, and there is a need for new thinking. We welcome this with open arms, he says. He believes that the thinking about such buildings has been conservative for a long time. And that there has hardly been any development in the last 88 years, since the first concrete landslide structure was built in 1935. Here is geologist Harald Hauso on the E16 after a landslide in 2016. Photo: Marthe Njåstad / news An exception is the company Roadcap from Sandnes, which has also developed alternative solutions for tunnels and concrete. – One thinks too conservatively, quite simply, Hauso believes. Landslide protection with concrete is solid, but often expensive and not least time-consuming, according to the geologist. – One likes to stand for months just for a few metres, he says. Last autumn, Vestfold and Telemark county council announced a competition to build a new avalanche shelter on county road 3324 in Fjågesund. This was to replace the only wooden landslide structure that exists in Norway with a new concrete one. But the costs were too high, and now the competition has changed and has been announced again, says project manager Anne Refsdal in Vestfold and Telemark County Municipality. – In general, avalanche superstructures in concrete are considered to be safer than avalanche superstructures in other materials. But we have not considered other materials in this project, she says. Here is an avalanche superstructure in concrete, which secured motorists when there was a major avalanche on the E134 in Røldal a few years ago. Photo: 03030 tips I think this can make the road safer. Jenny Følling (Sp) is the leader of the National Race Safety Group. She is also positive about new ways of thinking. She has been presented with the Stord company’s solutions. – This is cheaper than building a tunnel, and can provide a safer route for the money, she says. The Norwegian Public Roads Administration is open to new solutions, they state in an email to news. – Concrete has been used because we know it can tolerate the load it is exposed to, and it has been available over several decades. We are positive that other materials can also work, but before we can put them into use, a concept assessment must be carried out, writes acting section manager for construction engineering in the authority and regulations, Lise Bathen. They now have the construction from Stord for assessment. Hello! Do you have any thoughts after reading this case, or would you like to advise us about similar or other cases. Send me an email.
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Want race-safe vegans with a new and easier solution – news Vestland
