Essingeleden is a

motorway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway, and expressway. Other similar terms ...

that goes from

Solna Solna ( or , ), also known as Solna Municipality, is a municipality in central Stockholm County, Sweden, located just north of Stockholm City Centre. Its seat is located in the town of Solna, which is a part of the Stockholm urban area. Solna i ...

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

, crossing the westmost parts of central Stockholm, by going over

Kungsholmen Kungsholmen is an island in Lake Mälaren in Sweden, part of central Stockholm, Sweden. It is situated north of Riddarfjärden and considered part of the historical province Uppland. Its area is with a perimeter of . The highest point is a ...

, Lilla Essingen, and Stora Essingen. Essingeleden has three bridges – Fredhällsbron (270 m), Essingebron (470 m), and

Gröndalsbron Gröndalsbron () are two bridges in central Stockholm, Sweden, connecting the island Stora Essingen to the southern mainland district Gröndal. The older bridge, inaugurated in 1967, forms a 460-metre section of the Essingeleden motorway, of whic ...

(460 m) – and one tunnel, Fredhällstunneln (210 m), which is one of the busiest tunnels in Europe. The road is part of

European route The international E-road network is a numbering system for roads in Europe developed by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). The network is numbered from E1 up and its roads cross national borders. It also reaches Central ...

E4 and E20, and is the busiest road in Sweden, with about 150,000 vehicles per day. In August 2007 this has increased to 170,000 cars per day, because Essingeleden was then the only road through central Stockholm exempt from the

Stockholm congestion tax The Stockholm congestion tax (), also referred to as the Stockholm congestion charge, is a congestion pricing system implemented as a tax levied on most vehicles entering and exiting central Stockholm, Sweden. The congestion tax was implemented ...

, and because of repairs of the main road through the inner city. This has caused big traffic jams on Essingeleden and Södra länken. Since 1 January 2016, Essingeleden has been subject to the congestion tax.

History

The road was inaugurated on 21 August 1966 by

Tage Erlander Tage Fritjof Erlander (; 13 June 1901 – 21 June 1985) was a Swedish politician and statesman who served as the Prime Minister of Sweden and leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Party, Social Democratic Party from 1946 to 1969. Previously, h ...

with two temporary lanes in each direction on the western half of the road, as Sweden was about to switch over to right-hand sided traffic the next year. The road was fully operational in September 1967 after Sweden had switched over to right-hand side traffic, and Essingeleden became the first six-lane motorway in Sweden. During the 1990s, the road was repainted from six lanes to eight lanes to increase the capacity.

Plans

Essingeleden has on several occasions been included in plans to create a ring road around Stockholm. Southern Link opened in 2004 and the Northern Link opened 2015. No eastern link has been planned to date (August 2024). A new parallel motorway is under construction further west, " Förbifart Stockholm". It will have several tunnels and is expected to cost around 25 billion SEK. The

(gross tax amount 800 MSEK/year) is supposed to be used for this and other road and public transit projects in Stockholm. The construction started in 2014 after several years of debating and planning.

Gallery

Fredhällsbron 1964b.jpg, Fredhäll bridge in 1964 after a collapse Fredhällstunneln 1965.jpg, Fredhäll tunnel, 1965 Essingeleden 1966a.jpg, Fredhäll tunnel in 1966, shortly after opening. Notice that only one roadway is used Essingeleden 1967 Dagen H.jpg, Essingeleden on the 3rd of September 1967 Hornsbergs strand Essingeleden 1968.jpg, Construction underway at Kungsholmen in 1968

References

External links

{{coord, 59, 20, 42, N, 18, 00, 40, E, source:kolossus-svwiki, display=title Bridges in Stockholm Transport in Stockholm Motorways in Sweden 1960s establishments in Stockholm 1966 establishments in Sweden

History

Plans

Gallery

See also

References

External links