– It is either to quit or to apply for leave as long as the tunnel is closed, says Hanne Torgersen (29). From her house in Aurland, she has a half-hour drive to the neighboring municipality of Lærdal and her job at the emergency center at Lærdal hospital. But from 2024, the Lærdal tunnel on the E16, which is also one of the main roads most used by heavy transport between Oslo and Bergen, may be closed. Upgrades are to be made in the tunnel. The Norwegian Public Roads Administration’s most relevant option is to close the tunnel for a whole year while the most intensive work is done. – It takes the local community back over 20 years. It affects health care, business and transport. It will be difficult, says Torgersen. The 24.5 kilometer long Lærdal tunnel on the E16 runs between the municipalities of Lærdal and Aurland in Vestland county. When the tunnel was completed in 2000, it suddenly became very short between the two municipalities. Now people could live in one and work in the other. About 2,000 vehicles drive through the tunnel every 24 hours on average over the course of a year. July is high season, when almost 3,900 vehicles drive through the tunnel every day. Aurland is a large tourism municipality, and among other things the Nærøyfjord is located in the municipality. There are no good local detours between Lærdal and Aurland. EU requirements are the reason On Wednesday and Thursday there is a public meeting in Aurland and Lærdal about the work to be done and how the Swedish Road Administration envisages closing the tunnel. There are EU requirements for securing tunnels on European roads which means that the Norwegian Road Administration has to make upgrades. At first, the plan was to close the tunnel at night for four years. But new research showed that it would be challenging. The mountain is too unstable for them to promise to be able to open the tunnel at fixed times every day when they carry out blasting work. In addition, a great deal of time would have been spent driving the machines in and out of the tunnel every evening and morning. Therefore, closing the tunnel completely for a year is the most relevant option now. – Closing at night creates great uncertainty. We will never know if we can open the tunnel at 6 o’clock in the morning, at 8 o’clock, at 12 o’clock or perhaps not at all, says Stig Berg-Thomassen of the Norwegian Road Administration. The road over Aurlandsfjellet is narrow and winding. Up here from the Lærdals side. An alternative they are also considering is to split the period the tunnel is completely closed in two, so that it can remain open through the harshest winter months. The E16 over Filefjell is considered to be one of the safest mountain crossings between east and west, and then you will be able to have a safe winter road between the two parts of the country. – Then the total time the tunnel is closed may have to be increased from 12 to 14 months. But it is perhaps better in the big picture anyway, if you get a safer winter road, says Berg-Thomassen. PROJECT MANAGER: Stig Berg-Thomassen is project manager for tunnel upgrades in the National Road Administration in Southern and Western Norway Photo: Håkon Eliassen / news The police are divided In the 22 years the tunnel has been open, the two municipalities have merged into one building and employment market. No matter what solution the Road Administration comes up with, it will be challenging locally. – Everything we have built up across the municipal borders must be put on ice and built up locally, says Trygve Skjerdal, who is mayor of Aurland. The police in Aurland, Lærdal and Årdal have their headquarters in Lærdal. There are nine operative positions, all with attendance at the police station in Lærdal. Three of the employees live in Aurland. – Regardless of what solution they land on, it will create major challenges for us. Both how we should organize ourselves, and how we should be able to provide good and sound services to the residents, says Marit Breistøl, head of the police department in Aurland, Lærdal and Årdal. – Do they know how to solve it? – No. GETS A CHALLENGE: Marit Breistøl, deputy city manager for the police in Aurland, Lærdal and Årdal. Photo: Sondre Dalaker / news Now it is being investigated how society can get the cabal to go up. Commuter boat between Aurland and Lærdal is one of the alternatives mentioned for those who lose their commuter route. Smaller measures to improve the road over Aurlandsfjellet are also being considered, but it will still be closed in winter. – I cannot say more about who will pay now. You cannot send the entire bill to the owner of the measure, when this is a question of a contribution to society as a whole. But we will try to stretch ourselves and be solution-oriented, says Berg-Thomassen of the Swedish Road Administration. Want two runs Many have advocated that the best solution is to build a new tunnel run. They argue that then the work there will not hinder traffic in the current tunnel. When the new tunnel is finished, it will be possible to rent the traffic there while the old one is being upgraded. Nils Slinde Ahlin, day-to-day manager of Slinde Transport, sees this as the only good solution. And he also argues that then one is prepared for the future and possibly new requirements for tunnels. – That is the only sensible thing. The way the safety requirements for tunnels have developed, it is only a matter of time before there will be a requirement for two runs in such long tunnels anyway. – Now I am very central, but with the tunnel closure I will be very uncentral. For us who drive between Oslo and Bergen, this is almost an occupational ban, he says. BECOME AN OUTRAGE: Nils Slinde Ahlin in Slinde transport fears they will have their headquarters on the outskirts when the tunnel is closed. Photo: Sondre Dalaker / news But the Road Administration calls that proposal out of the question. – The alternative with race number two is politics and not part of our mission with tunnel upgrading. It will cost a lot more and take a lot longer. We don’t have time, because these EU requirements actually had a deadline of 2019 to be met, says Berg-Thomassen of the Norwegian Public Roads Administration. The upgrade work will cost approximately NOK 2 billion. Building a new race will perhaps cost as much as NOK 11 billion. It is uncertain exactly when the Swedish Road Administration will decide how they want to close the tunnel, but they are betting that the work will start in 2024. On Wednesday, Transport Minister Jon-Ivar Nygård (Ap) will answer in question time at the Storting whether a new tunnel run has been considered, and whether they have looked at the social economy in it.
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Will close the Lærdal tunnel for a year – paralyzes an entire region – news Vestland
