Bolungarvíkurgöng (, regionally also ) is a tunnel in northwestern

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

, located in

Westfjords The Westfjords or West Fjords (, ) is a large peninsula in northwestern Iceland and an administrative region, the least populous in the country. It lies on the Denmark Strait, facing the east coast of Greenland. It is connected to the rest of I ...

along Route 61. It has a length of and opened on 25 September 2010. One of the main objectives of building the tunnel was to replace one of Iceland's most dangerous roads, which connected two of the largest towns in the area,

Ísafjörður Ísafjörður (pronounced , meaning ''ice fjord'', literally ''fjord of ices'') is a town in the northwest of Iceland. The oldest part of Ísafjörður with the town centre is located on a spit of sand, or ''eyri'', in Skutulsfjörður, a fjord ...

and

Bolungarvík Bolungarvík (, regionally also ) is a small town and the only built-up area in the municipality of Bolungarvíkurkaupstaður in the northwest of Iceland, located on the Westfjords peninsula, approximately from the town of Ísafjörður and from ...

, and thereby improve road safety. The old road lies along the seashore under the steep and unstable mountain hills of Óshlíð, and was subject to frequent avalanches and rockfalls. Other objectives include improved road connections and reduced travel times, such that the distance between Ísafjordur and Bolungarvík would be similar to that between districts in a city. Bolungarvik Tunnel details:Mannvit, engineering firm - * Tunnel length: 5.426 km * Cross section of the tunnel: 54 m² * Maximum width of the tunnel: 8.7 m * Two-lane highway * Number of emergency lay-bys: 10 As part of the construction project, an additional of road was built, including a pair of bridges crossing the Ósá and Langá rivers.

References

Road tunnels in Iceland Tunnels completed in 2010 Buildings and structures in Westfjords {{Europe-tunnel-stub