Tunnel in Iceland

Despite the challenging topography, there are very few tunnels in Iceland .

Now, in January 2020, twelve tunnels are in operation in the country, one under construction and two more in planning. In the planning of tunnels from the year 2000 by the Icelandic road administration Vegagerðin , 24 possible projects were examined. Seven of these tunnels have now been completed and another is under construction. The Icelandic word göng for tunnel is a feminine form that only exists in the plural .

First tunnel

The first tunnel to be completed was the Arnarnessgöng , 30 m long, in the Westfjords in 1948 . The next came in 1967 the Strákagöng with 800 m on the Tröllaskagi peninsula in the north-west of Iceland. The third tunnel in 1978 was the Oddsskarðsgöng with 640 m in the east fjords of Iceland. And this was replaced in 2017 by the 7542 m long Norðfjarðargöng . All other (and longer) tunnels were not built until 1990.

Reasons for tunnels

The Icelandic tunnels were usually built for one of two reasons:

Either they connect localities at a short distance, but the topography (fjords, mountains) require significant detours. Examples are the Hvalfjarðargöng , Héðinsfjarðargöng , Múlagöng and Fáskrúðsfjarðargöng . The Almannaskarðsgöng , Bolungarvíkurgöng , Norðfjarðargöng , Vestfjarðagöng and Strákagöng replace pass roads that were not safe for winter due to the Nordic weather conditions and were sometimes closed for weeks, in the last example even 7-8 months a year. Since there was an alternative route in each case (either a long journey overland or changing to the ship from which each affected location could be reached), the need for tunnels was less pronounced than in other mountainous countries, taking into account the high costs and low population density.

Distribution in the country

The tunnels are distributed very irregularly over Iceland:

Three of the tunnels ( Arnarnessgöng , Bolungarvíkurgöng , Vestfjarðagöng ) can be found in the northern Westfjords in Ísafjarðarbær and the neighboring municipality of Bolungarvík . Three other tunnels (the Strákagöng , Héðinsfjarðargöng and Múlagöng ) are in the municipality of Fjallabyggð with the towns of Ólafsfjörður and Siglufjörður in northern Iceland. Two tunnels are in operation in the east fjords . These are the Fáskrúðsfjarðargöng and Norðfjarðargöng . There are three tunnels on the ring road :

The Hvalfjarðargöng north of Reykjavík , the Vaðlaheiðargöng near Akureyri in the north and the Almannaskarðsgöng near Höfn in the southeast.

particularities

Vestfjarðagöng has a special feature . It has three tunnel portals and a branch in the mountain (and thus three tunnel branches). Accordingly, the question of the longest tunnel is not easy to answer. According to the official representation of the Icelandic Road Traffic Office Vegagerðin, Héðinsfjarðargöng is the longest tunnel with 10.5 km. However, this tunnel consists of two tunnels 6.9 and 3.7 km in length. In between, a valley is crossed at almost 600 m. All three branches of Vestfjarðagöng, however, together have a length of 9160 m. However, this cannot be done in one go. The two longest branches, driving from Súgandafjörður to the southwest, are together 7057 m long. Vestfjarðagöng is still the longest continuous tunnel in Iceland.

Since January 1, 2019, you have to pay a toll to drive through Vaðlaheiðargöng. Apart from that, all tunnels in Iceland are currently toll-free, including Hvalfjarðargöng , which was previously privately operated, since the end of September 2018 . This is the first and only one below sea level.

image	Surname	length	start of building	opening	region	Street	traffic	comment
	Arnarnessgöng	0030 m	1947	1948	Vestfirdir		512	first tunnel in Iceland
	Strákagöng	0800 m	1959	November 10, 1967	Norðurland vestra		330	Single lane with alternative options
	Oddsskarðsgöng	0640 m	1974	December 14, 1977	Austurland	earlier		Einstreifig with alternatives decommissioned and by the Norðfjarðargöng replaced
	Múlagöng	3,400 m	1988	March 1, 1991	Norðurland eystra		682	Single lane with alternative options
	Vestfjarðagöng	9,120 m	1991	September 14, 1996	Vestfirdir		772 697 263	The tunnel branches out underground, sometimes with two lanes, mostly with one lane with alternative options
	Hvalfjarðargöng	5,770 m	1996	July 11, 1998	Höfuðborgarsvæðið Vesturland		7266	up to 165 m below sea level was subject to a toll until 2018
	Almannaskarðsgöng	1,308 m	2004	June 24, 2005	Austurland		662	replaces a pass road with a gradient of up to 17%
	Fáskrúðsfjarðargöng	5,850 m	2003	September 9, 2005	Austurland		858	shortens the road by 45 km
	Bolungarvíkurgöng	5,156 m	2008	September 25, 2010	Vestfirdir		980	replaces a road endangered by falling rocks and avalanches
	Héðinsfjarðargöng	10,572 m	2006	October 2, 2010	Norðurland eystra		720	3,642 m + 6930 m in between a part above ground
	Húsavíkurgöng	0943 m	2016	August 31, 2017	Norðurland eystra	---		Not for general road traffic
	Norðfjarðargöng	7,542 m	2013	November 11, 2017	Austurland		466	Successor to Oddsskarðsgöng
	Vaðlaheiðargöng	7,400 m	2013	January 12, 2019	Norðurland eystra		1825	toll
	Dýrafjarðargöng	5,600 m	2017	unknown (~ 2020)	Vestfirdir			under construction
	Álftafjarðargöng	2,700 m	unknown	unknown	Vestfirdir			The plan is to replace the Arnarnessgöng
	Fjarðarheiðargöng	13,500 m	unknown	unknown	Austurland			in planning

In the Traffic column , the traffic volume is given with vehicles per day as an annual average.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Jarðgangaáætlun. Retrieved January 10, 2020 (Icelandic). 
2. ↑ Beygingarlýsing íslensks nútímamáls: göng. Retrieved January 11, 2020 (Icelandic). 
3. ↑ Morgunblaðið December 14, 1977 page 48
4. ↑ Jarðgöng á vegakerfinu. Retrieved January 10, 2020 (Icelandic).