Norwegian Ministry of Transport and Communications sends an assignment letter to Kystverket (The Norwegian Coastal Administration) to start the preparations for the construction of the Stad Ship Tunnel.

With this assignment letter, Kystverket will start acquiring properties in the area, set up a project organization, prepare the tender bases and initiate the tender.

The Ministry of Transport and Communications is now preparing a proposition to the Norwegian Parliament about the project to be presented during the spring.According to Kystverket, 75 million NOK in start-up funds has been set-aside in the state budget for 2021.

Kystverket plans toorganize a conference with pre-qualified contractors during the spring / early summer of this year with the goal of signing contractor during 2021. The plan is to start the construction to start in 2022 ad the tunnel be ready in 2025/2026.

Stad Skipstunnel (Stad Ship Tunnel) will be the worlds first tunnels for ships. The Stad Skipstunnel tunnel is important for the people living in Vestland. Ships going around the Stad peninsula are very much exposed to treacherous waters of the North Sea without any protection due to lack of outlying islands. This costline is considered one of the most dangerous in whole cost of Norway.

Roughly this will be the route (there are several competing route plans close to each other  - image from  wikimedia  Oliver O'Donnell / CC BY-SA)

The Stad Skipstunnel will be 49 metres high and 36 metres wide. It will have a dept of 12 meters. The tunnel will be able to handle ships of up to 16,000 tons.

It has been proposed many decades only. A whole 144 years ago. Finally in 2013 it has been included in the National Transport Plan of Norway.