On Friday night, work has started on the fourth and final road tunnel on the Sotrasambandet (The Sotra Link).

The 650 meter long Knarrvikt tunnel runs between the Valaskiftet and Arefjordpollen on Sotra. The Knarevikt tunnel gets two tunnel runs with two fields in the direction.

Tunnelling is expected to finish towards the end of 2025. The masses from the tunnel drive are transported to Arefjordpollen and Storavatnet in Loddefjord.

Good progress

Sotra Link Construction, which is the main contractor at Norway's largest road system, has good progress towards the planned opening in June 2027. The production at the plant is large, and in total around 1000 people work in the project. In sum, they have worked around two million working hours.

100 excavators are in turn outside and until now over 4000 blasts have been carried out, and many are hosted by the work.

- It is demanding to build a large road system close to many neighbors and traffic. We are pleased that people are patient with us, and we do what we can to solve the task in a good way, says project manager Lene Sælen Rivenes in Statens vegvesen (the Norwegian Public Roads Administration).

Project Director at Sotra Link Construction Pedro Manuel Rodríguez Hernández is well pleased to start the latest tunnel.

- We are looking forward to embarking on the last of the road tunnels on the Sotrasambandet. We are very proud of the efforts and efficiency of the skilled tunnel team at Sotra Link Construction, despite challenging.

The mayor of Øygarden municipality Tom Georg Indrevik, who has the construction work right outside his office at the town hall is delighted.

- It is now two years since we marked the start -up and fired from the first ointment for the connection. We see that there is a lot of activity along the entire route, and I feel that there is good progress in the project. It is important that we as road users contribute to the project getting good "working conditions" and whether possible avoids driving with a private car on the national highway in the rush hour, says the mayor.
Queue of miles

The construction work started on March 22, 2023. Two years later, many miles have been achieved.

We had a breakthrough in the Kolltveitt tunnel April 2024. Work on the preparation of the tunnel is well underway.

The bridge yards on the new Sotrabru have reached 100 meters on both sides of the Vatlestraumen. The tower will be completed this summer, and work to draw the cables between the two tower starts in the fall.

In the Drotningsviktunnel we have reached about a kilometer into the 1.9 kilometer long tunnel.

A new road bridge over the Straumsundet is well underway and there is now been worked on peeling for a new bridge over Bildøystraumen. This work will continue in 2025 and 2026

Breakthrough in the stream tunnel

Establishment in the 740 meter long stream tunnel is waiting after Easter.

Three quarters of the fill in Storavatnet have been carried out. This area will be a new green plant, and will be established after the municipality of Bergen when the Sotrasambandet has opened.

Over 60 other constructions are and part the project, including road bridges, pedestrian and bicycle bridges, culverts and support walls.

It hosts and built 14 kilometers of pedestrian and bicycle paths. Driving two of the three walking and cycling tunnels on the route is good time. In addition, work is done on more of the pedestrian and bicycle bridges that will cross it over the new national highway.

Facts

Rv. 555 Sotrasambandet is one of Norway's largest road projects. The project includes the construction of 9.4 km of four -lane road from intersection with fv. 562 at Storavatnet in Bergen to junction at fv. 561 at Kolltveit in Øygarden municipality. About 4.6 km goes in the tunnel.

The OPS contract (public -private cooperation), which is awarded to Sotra Link Construction, has a value of NOK 19.8 billion. The contract was signed in May 2022. The construction time for a new four -lane road is five years, and the project will open for traffic in 2027. The contract is the largest single contract signed by Statens vegvesen. The total framework for the project is 23.1 billion 2022 kroner, including preceding work that started in 2018.

Foto and Text (translated) from Statens vegvesen.press release.