- [Narrator] Norway's coastline is unlike anywhere else
on earth.
It is a land of soaring cliffs and plunging fjords.
These breathtaking fjords attract tens of thousands
of visitors every year who want
to witness the magical spectacle.
But for the Norwegians themselves,
the fjords and rugged coastline presents something
of an obstacle.
Indeed, traveling up the coast
where around 1/3 of Norwegians live is quite a challenge
with roads torturously weaving
and winding away between the towns and cities.
Now, Norway has a plan to fix its infrastructure problem.
The new E39 Highway will stretch
from Trondheim in the north
to Kristiansand in the south,
taking its place alongside other monumental roads,
like Route 66 and the Pacific Coast Highway.
In this video,
we'll explore this all inspiring mega project,
finding out just how the staggering
47 billion is being spent.
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Norway has always been a seafaring nation.
The towering cliffs of the fjords provided shelter
to the iron age farmers and fishermen.
But these narrow waterways connected
to the sea also functioned
as the perfect harbor for the fleets of longboats
that pillaged Europeans from the 8th
to the 10th centuries.
Gone are the days of the fearsome Viking,
explorers and raiders.
But the fjords and rugged coastline remain.
Carved over millennia by immense ice sheets,
the fjords are lasting reminder of the ice age,
which once ravaged the earth.
Today, if you wanted to travel
from Kristiansand to Trondheim,
you wouldn't take the long boat,
but the ferry.
Indeed, E39 are 1,330 kilometer road
stretching from Denmark to Norway is routinely broken
by ferry stops crossing the fjords.
There's no continuous road.
As such,
the entire journey takes a monumental 21 hours
involving seven ferries.
The most ferries for a single road anywhere in Europe.
That's where the newly planned coastal highway comes in.
The Norwegian government has embarked
on an ambitious 30-year plan
to increase investment and cut travel times.
Initially, the project was hoped to be finished
by 2038.
But with costs rising and needs elsewhere,
the 30-year timeline seemed more feasible.
It's not hard to see why the project is delayed.
Each stretch of the highway requires an engineering marvel.
Take the $2 billion Boknafjorden tunnel,
for example,
crossing a 27-kilometer sub C-section.
It will be the longest, deepest tunnel anywhere in the world
at 319 meters below sea level.
In fact,
the project involves two tunnels,
connected every 250 meters
with emergency exits.
At 500 meters intervals,
each tunnel will have a lay-by
with telephones and surveillance cameras scattered
along the route.
This ambitious tunnel system will also include
a mid-route intersection
at the island municipality of Kvitsøy
to connect the island to the mainland.
Work on the colossal underwater structure was begun
back in 2018
with an estimated completion dates somewhere around 2026.
Moving north,
Bjornfjord is five kilometers wide
reaching depths of 600 meters.
Here, engineers aimed to go over water,
not under it.
Their solution is a floating bridge.
It might sound crazy,
but floating bridges are actually found
throughout the world.
In fact,
Norway already boasts two
of the world's longest floating bridges.
As you might imagine,
the problem is how to anchor the structure
to prevent it from floating downstream.
The bridge can either be anchored at each end
or side-anchored to the seabed,
a feature seen in the floating bridges around Seattle
As Eidem Mathias Egeland,
the project manager for the Bjornfjord bridge explained
the big challenge for a side-anchored floating bridge here
compared to the ones around Seattle is the depth.
The deepest mooring on the Hood Canal Bridge is 120 meters
below sea level.
Here, it is over 600 meters at its deepest.
To the Norwegian team is just one more headache
inducing engineering problem.
Elsewhere at Sulafjorden,
a bridge is needed
to cross a four-kilometer stretch of water.
Here, the middle pillar must reach down
to the sea floor,
400 meters below.
It's a significant challenge caused by thousands of years
of glacial erosion.
But an alternative design has also been submitted
involving two interconnected floating tunnels held down
by immensely strong cables attached to the sea floor.
But nothing comes close to the Sognefjord crossing,
known locally as the king of the fjords.
The name is deserved measuring 3,700 meters in width
and a mind-numbing 1,300 meters deep.
It's a crossing shore to keep the engineers up at night.
Designs are complicated by a need to cater to car traffic
while keeping the sea lanes open.
Indeed,
this far sea highway stretches 205 kilometers inland
presenting a vital lifeline
to Norway's interior coastal communities.
Therefore, any crossing must allow clearance
of at least 400 meters wide,
70 meters high,
and 20 meters into the fjord steps
all while being buffeted by the vicious winds
of the Atlantic ocean.
Oh, and if that wasn't enough,
it still needs to be affordable.
Despite the seemingly insurmountable challenge,
the ingenious team rose to the task,
suggesting several potential solutions.
The most obvious solution isn't elegant suspension bridge,
but almost double the length
of the current longest suspension bridge.
And with high velocity winds,
it's unlikely to be in viable option.
Floating bridges like those Bjørnafjord are also
a possibility,
but to allow sea traffic through the bridge would need
to be precariously high,
posing a considerable engineering challenge.
Finally, a floating bridge is another potential option.
Here, the bridge would be tethered,
not from the seabed,
but from floating pontoons overhead.
Engineers have also considered a hybrid proposal
where a section of the crossing would be submerged
to allow a ship to pass overhead
before becoming a normal pontoon bridge.
If completed,
it would be the world's first hybrid floating structure.
Whatever the Norwegian government opt for,
the benefits are clear.
The finished route would be
almost 50 kilometers shorter,
and travel times will be cut in half
to a reasonable 10 and a half hours.
The new route will feature no more ferries
and will be significantly easier to navigate.
But with an emphasis on safe
and sustainable building methods,
the engineering team certainly has their work cut out.
As the largest infrastructure project
in the country's history
and one of the biggest engineering projects worldwide,
we eagerly await the finished result.
When it's finished,
it might just be the greatest road trip in the world.
But what do you think?
Is this mega projects
and groundbreaking engineering marvel,
or do you think the Norwegian government has gone
a bridge too far?
Let us know in the comments below.
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