The Bjarkøy Fixed Link ( no, Bjarkøyforbindelsen) is a

fixed link A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

which connects the three islands of

Bjarkøya Bjarkøya is an island in Harstad Municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. The island is located north of the island of Grytøya and northwest of the island of Sandsøya. The Andfjorden lies to the northwest and the Vågsfjorden lies ...

, Sandsøya, and

Grytøya or is an island in Harstad Municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. The island lies just north of the large island of Hinnøya and south of the island of Bjarkøya. It is surrounded by the Vågsfjorden in the east and the Andfjorden ...

Harstad Municipality ( se, Hárstták) is the second-most populated municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. It is mostly located on the large island of Hinnøya. The municipal center is the town of Harstad, the most populous town in Central Hålogaland, ...

Troms og Finnmark Troms og Finnmark (; sme, Romsa ja Finnmárku ; fkv, Tromssa ja Finmarkku; fi, Tromssa ja Finnmark, lit. Troms and Finnmark in English language, English), is a Counties of Norway, county in Northern Norway, northern Norway that was established ...

county,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

. The fixed link was completed in late 2018. A subsea road tunnel ( no, Kvernsundtunnelen) connects the islands of Grytøya and Bjarkøya, and a bridge connects the islands of Grytøya and Sandsøya. The tunnel to Bjarkøya is long. The bridge to Grytøya is long plus a long

causeway A causeway is a track, road or railway on the upper point of an embankment across "a low, or wet place, or piece of water". It can be constructed of earth, masonry, wood, or concrete. One of the earliest known wooden causeways is the Sweet ...

. The project also included of new road on Grytøya to connect the existing roads to the new undersea tunnel. The Bjarkøy Tunnel is designated as part of Norwegian County Road 867, while the Sandsøya Bridge is part of Norwegian County Road 124.

History

The former municipality of

Bjarkøy Bjarkøy is a former municipality in Troms county, Norway. The municipality existed from 1838 until it was merged with Harstad Municipality on 1 January 2013. The administrative centre of the municipality was the village of Nergården on the ...

had a population of about 500 people. In a

referendum A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a direct vote by the electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a representative. This may result in the adoption of ...

in 2002, the residents voted to merge with the much larger neighboring

if the fixed link was built, but since less than two-thirds of the vote approved it, it was not a binding vote. After further discussions, the municipalities were merged on 1 January 2013. The financing of the project is based on financing from tolls, saved subsidies to the ferry operations, the savings of needed to build new ferry quays if the ferry service had continued, money saved through the municipal merger, and grants from

Troms County Municipality Troms County Municipality ( no, Troms fylkeskommune, Kven: ''Tromssan fylkinkomuuni,'' se, Romssa fylkkasuohkan) was the regional governing administration of the old Troms county in northern Norway. It had its administration in the city of Trom ...

. The total cost was then estimated at with a tentative completion date of 2016.

Construction

Construction began in late 2014, and as of October 2015 the Bjarkøy tunnel bore reached from Grytøya. In July 2016, weaknesses in the sea floor rock which threatened the flooding of the tunnel led to the reporting of an increased cost projection in excess of . In July 2017, asphalting of the road surface inside the tunnel commenced with the projected completion date revised to autumn 2018. The tunnel was formally opened on 15 December 2018 at a final cost of .

References

Subsea tunnels in Norway Road tunnels in Troms og Finnmark Harstad Roads within the Arctic Circle {{TromsFinnmark-geo-stub