Five companies have expressed an interest in the technically challenging €315 million Kvitsøy section of Norway’s major road and tunnel project Rogfast.
The companies are Implenia/Stangeland Maskin, Marti Tunnel, PNC Norge, Salini Impregilo and Skanska Norway.
Tor Geir Espedal, project manager at the Norwegian Public Roads Administration (Statens vegvesen), said his organisation will make a shortlist of three companies in the first half of next year.
The Kvitsøy section is one of the €1.94 billion project’s three tunnel contracts and is focussed around a small community of 500 inhabitants on an island municipality in Rogaland county. The municipality is an archipelago located at the entrance to the large Boknafjorden and is just under 4km northwest of the mainland Stavanger peninsula.
Despite its small size, it will have one of the most intricate underground connections to the Rogfast or the Rogaland Fixed Link. The project is a sub-sea road tunnel under construction between the municipalities of Randaberg, near the city of Stavanger, and Bokn in Rogaland county.
Maximum depth of the tunnel will be 392m below sea level – a world record – This will be a part of the main European route E39 highway along the west coast of Norway and it will link the cities of Kristiansand – Stavanger – Haugesund – Bergen.
The 27km twin-bore (10.5m diameter) tunnel will be part of the European route E39, and run below two fjords – Boknafjorden and Kvitsøyfjorden. A spur connection to Kvitsøy is the latest work to be tendered.
Included in the fixed link is a 2km suspension bridge with a 1.6 central span across Romdals Fjord and at a tunnel entrance. The bridge’s two piers will be founded on either bank of the fjord.
The project – expected to be finished sometime in 2025 or 2026 – featured as a key project report in the World Highways issue November/December 2018.
A particular feature will be modified tunnel appearance to cope with driver monotony. In one particular section, there is a plan to widen the tunnel and change the lighting in an effort to relieve the monotony of driving 27km through a tunnel.
