The Langfjord Tunnel is a proposed

subsea road tunnel An underwater tunnel is a tunnel which is partly or wholly constructed under the sea or a river. They are often used where building a bridge or operating a ferry link is unviable, or to provide competition or relief for existing bridges or ferry li ...

which would cross Langfjorden between

Molde Molde () is a town and List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Møre og Romsdal Counties of Norway, county, Norway. It is located in the Traditional districts of Norway, traditional district of Romsdal. It is located on the Romsdal Pen ...

and Rauma in

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 ...

. It may also be built with a branch to the island of

Sekken Sekken is an island in Molde Municipality, Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. The island is located in Romsdal Fjord, at the mouth of the Langfjorden. The island lies about south of the island of Bolsøya and about west of the historic island ...

. As part of County Road 64, the tunnel would replace the Åfarnes–Sølsnes Ferry, and allow

Romsdal Romsdal is a Districts of Norway, traditional district in the Norwegian county Møre og Romsdal, located between Nordmøre and Sunnmøre. The district of Romsdal comprises Aukra, Fræna, Midsund, Molde, Nesset, Rauma, Norway, Rauma, Sandøy, and V ...

ferry-free access to

Eastern Norway Eastern Norway ( nb, Østlandet, nn, Austlandet) is the geographical region of the south-eastern part of Norway. It consists of the counties Vestfold og Telemark, Viken, Oslo and Innlandet. Eastern Norway is by far the most populous regio ...

, as well as connect Molde and Rauma. If the branch is built, it would replace the Molde–Sekken Ferry, giving the island 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 ...

. The main tunnel would be between long, which the branch would be slightly shorter than long. The tunnel would reach below

mean sea level There are several kinds of mean in mathematics, especially in statistics. Each mean serves to summarize a given group of data, often to better understand the overall value ( magnitude and sign) of a given data set. For a data set, the '' ari ...

, making it the deepest subsea tunnel in the world. It would also be the longest subsea tunnel in Norway.

History

The project was originally planned to be self-financed as a

toll road A toll road, also known as a turnpike or tollway, is a public or private road (almost always a controlled-access highway in the present day) for which a fee (or '' toll'') is assessed for passage. It is a form of road pricing typically implemen ...

, without receiving other state grants than the subsidies which would otherwise have been given to the ferry. However, new requirements changed increased the costs from 910 to 1,370 million

Norwegian krone The krone (, abbreviation: kr (also NKr for distinction); code: NOK), plural ''kroner'', is currency of the Kingdom of Norway (including Svalbard). Traditionally known as the Norwegian crown in English. It is nominally subdivided into 100 ' ...

. The requirements included a less steep grading, which would result in a longer tunnel, and three instead of two lanes, to the uphill direction would have a

passing lane A passing lane (North American English) or overtaking lane (English outside of North America) is a lane on a multi-lane highway or motorway closest to the median of the road (the central reservation). In some countries, lanes are described as bein ...

Møre og Romsdal County Municipality Møre og Romsdal County Municipality ( no, Møre og Romsdal fylkeskommune) is the democratically elected regional governing administration of Møre og Romsdal county in western Norway. The main responsibilities of the county municipality include ...

has prioritized the Langfjord Tunnel third, after the Nordøy Fixed Link and the Trollheim Tunnel. Should the Langfjord Tunnel need public grants, with today's funding level money would not be allocated until the late 2020s. In November 2010, figures from the newly opened

Eiksund Tunnel The Eiksund tunnel ( no, Eiksundtunnelen) is an undersea tunnel in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway, which runs under the Vartdalsfjorden connecting the municipalities of Ørsta and Ulstein. The tunnel is long and reaches a depth of below sea le ...

and Atlantic Ocean Tunnel showed an increase of 110% in traffic, compared to the 20% estimate for the Langfjord Tunnel. The new tunnels had an estimated increase of 30% and 60%, respectively. This will result in more tolls, which can handle the increased traffic. However, the county municipality would have to guarantee for this number; should the increased traffic fall short, the county municipality would have to pay the deficit. A public guarantee would also decrease the average interest rate from 6.5% to 5.0%. Should the tunnel not be built, a second ferry will have to be used, which will increase the need for subsidies for the ferry route. This will increase the income for the toll road, as they receive the money which would otherwise be used for the ferry. Should the changes be approved, sufficient funding would be secured for financing the project.

References

Road tunnels in Møre og Romsdal Proposed tunnels in Norway Subsea tunnels in Norway Norwegian County Road 64 {{Norway-tunnel-stub