Sotra Bridge - Future

Future

In 2005, 8,000 people commuted between Sotra and Bergen, and the bridge had an average daily traffic of 22,000 vehicles. On National Road 555 between Straume, the municipal center of Fjell, and Storavatnet, where National Road 555 becomes a motorway, there are long queues during rush hour. The Norwegian Public Roads Administration has proposed a four-lane motorway along National Road 555 from Stoavatnet to Straume. This will require a new crossing across Knarreviksundet. Such a motorway extension is estimated to cost between NOK 3 and 4 billion, and the government has allocated NOK 400 million in National Transport Plan 2010–2019 for the project. It is presumed that most of the project will be financed as a toll road.

Four main proposals were suggested for the new fixed link. One involved a four-lane subsea tunnel, one involved building a second, two-lane bridge immediately adjacent to the current one, which would give the impression of a single bridge, another involved a new four-lane bridge slightly to the south, and the last involved a new bridge considerably further to the south, which would connect to County Road 557.

A tunnel would consist of two sections, one from Kolltveit to Arefjord, where there would be an intersection, and one from Arefjord to Storavatnet. Both would be subsea tunnels, where the western-most would be 4.7 kilometers (2.9 mi) long and reach 80 meters (260 ft) below mean sea level (BMSL), while the eastern tunnel would be 7.0 kilometers (4.3 mi) long and reach 140 metres (460 ft) BMSL. This would involve the current National Road 555 being reclassified as a local road. A tunnel would be 1.5 kilometers (0.93 mi) longer than a bridge, which would give higher costs of roughly NOK 1000 per year for an average commuter. The tunnel would catch long-distance travel (Straume and westwards), while the bridge would be used for local traffic. An alternate tunnel proposal was to build it roughly 2 kilometers (1.2 mi) south of the current bridge, between Brattholmen and Håkonshella. This would connect to County Road 557 about 1 kilometer (0.62 mi) south of Liavatnet.

The company Sotrasambandet AS has been established to lobby for and potentially debt-finance the construction, which potentially could include other parts of National Roads 555 and 561. In 2008, the company estimated that it might be possible to start construction in 2013, and complete the project by 2016. On 21 April 2009, State Secretary Geir Pollestad stated that the government would support a bridge, but did not indicate if a two-lane or four-lane solution would be chosen. The Norwegian Public Roads Administration has recommended a four-lane bridge, while the Institute of Transport Economics has recommended the two-lane bridge. It is largely up to the city councils of Bergen and Fjell to determine which of the bridge alternatives will be chosen.

A four-lane bridge is estimated to cost NOK 2 billion. It could either be located immediately north of the current bridge, or south of Norwegian Talc. The traffic from Askøy, along County Road 562, connects with National Road 555 at Storavatnet. Without a bypass, the increased capacity from Sotra would not be achieved without expanding the motorway from Storavatnet to the city center. In 2010, an alternative was launched whereby a four-lane bridge would be built south of Norwegian Talc, and would immediately run into a tunnel and connect to the current motorway at Liavatnet. This is the planned intersection between National Road 555 and County Road 557 (Ring Road West), which would result in traffic from Sotra towards southern Bergen would not take up capacity on the current 555 motorway until after traffic from both Sotra and Askøy heading towards southern Bergen have had a possibility to head onto County Road 557.

In June 2010, Hordaland County Council decided that an extension of the Bergen Light Rail to Sotra was to be made part of the extension plans in the period until 2040. For the light rail to use existing infrastructure, a bridge would have to be chosen. The road project has been criticized by environmentalists because it uniformly bases growth in transport to the archipelago based on cars, and lacks any plans for inclusion of public transport, whether by light rail or as bus lanes. Criticism has also been raised against the Norwegian Public Roads Administration being responsible for planning the public transport, as they have failed to produce efficient public transport systems in Bergen.