Faroe Island roundabout under the Atlantic Ocean

https://nordfra.dk/faroe-island-first-roundabout-in-the-world-under-the-atlantic-ocean/

by sohkamyung • 6 years ago

95 65 6 years ago

jbj• 6 years ago

the construction project: https://www.ncc.no/vare-prosjekter/undersjoiske-tunneler-far...

zerof1l• 6 years ago

I fail to understand why Faroe Islands need such tunnel in the first place considering the costs. There's only about 52,000 inhabitants on whole archipelago. Also it doesn't seem like they have a bunch of factories and much of production going on.

Taniwha• 6 years ago

They have tunnels between almost all the islands, being able to drive between the islands rather than taking a boat on dangerous seas makes a lot of sense

jillesvangurp• 6 years ago

The article mentions a budget of a billion DKK. This would be a bit over 100M $. So, expensive but not that outrageous.

Populations on these islands and their economies are small precisely because it is hard to get there and requires operating ferries (which costs money as well). Solve that problem and you might expect to see an effect on the local economy (more tourism, cheaper to move goods around, commutes to the mainland, etc.). If you then consider that they'll be benefiting from this for decades/centuries, it suddenly becomes a wise investment.

user2994cb2• 6 years ago

They have tunnels through a lot of the islands as well - mostly single track with passing places (looked pretty terrifying when I was there a couple of decades ago, though I was never the one driving).

robga• 6 years ago

I visited the Faroes 4 years ago. Locals were proud of their cold storage industry. Fish from North Atlantic trawlers flash frozen many hours earlier than delivery to the continent. Lucrative.

I imagine a cross island road network would help this industry, opening new avenues for trawler arrival.

It was a wonderful place to visit.

fogihujy2• 6 years ago

Investing heavily in the infrastructure of the Faroe Islands and Greenland gives Denmark leverage whenever those territories start talking about independence. Furthermore, it's increasing the standard of living for the people who live there, and having infrastructure in place makes it easier to attract businesses in the future.

There's also a cool-factor.

usrusr2• 6 years ago

So basically Copenhagen's way of keeping Faroe Islanders on Faroe Islands. Do they get along that badly?

And it's not money given to Faroe Islands, it's money given to companies much closer to home for doing cool digs beneath Faroe Islands. I believe that Denmark understands this difference very well.

Thlom2• 6 years ago

In Norway we are currently building bridges and tunnels to a few islands with less than 3000 inhabitants for more than double the price of this Faroe project.

:-)

jeofken3• 6 years ago

Is it common for rich Norwegians to legally move to Sweden and use almost Swiss level ISK to escape the 25% capital gains and ~1.4% wealth tax?

torgard3• 6 years ago

You used to have to take a large detour to get to Klaksvík - which is the second largest town - from Tórshavn (the capital). By taking the tunnel, you shave off 27 minutes.

Travel time to almost all of the north-eastern islands, and the towns on these islands, has been cut down by half an hour.

It is also safer. They also argue that it is cheaper, but I don't know about that.

Ignoring industry, that's just quality of life.

But consider a car accident; the ambulances have to get there in a hurry. Minutes might save lives here.

ovi2562• 6 years ago

consider a car accident; the ambulances have to get there in a hurry. Minutes might save lives here.

If that's the reason, why not build that tunnel in a big city, where there are a lot more accidents and lives to be saved ?

chrisseaton• 6 years ago

Also it doesn't seem like they have a bunch of factories and much of production going on.

What’s this got to do with anything?

dijit• 6 years ago

Economy is all that some people think about, never standards of living or politics.

jVinc• 6 years ago

When the financing for much of this was agreed upon it was under the previous danish prime minister Lars Løkke, who's wife is Faroese. The second he stopped they founded a company there which has close ties to some travel company among other things. Besides this the family has general connections to the economy there naturally.

p1mrx• 6 years ago

https://web.archive.org/web/20201204062422/https://nordfra.d...

I don't understand why they'd say "in the world under the atlantic ocean", when the atlantic ocean is a subset of the world. Is there already a roundabout under one of the other oceans?

emteycz• 6 years ago

"First roundabout under the ocean in the world" is probably what they wanted to say.

antonvs• 6 years ago

"Faroe Island's" "first roundabout in the World", "under The Atlantic Ocean."

IfOnlyYouKnew2• 6 years ago

Yeah, it's a pretty roundabout way.

xwdv2• 6 years ago

Faroe Island has never built a roundabout anywhere in the world, and now it has done so underneath the Atlantic Ocean.

chmod775• 6 years ago

Well, they appear to have at least 2 already: https://i.imgur.com/vwyhCw6.png

hijp4• 6 years ago

More pictures and a map: https://www.estunlar.fo/en/about-the-tunnels/the-eysturoy-tu...

It's amazing they did this in four years for $160mil while here in Hawaii our elevated rail broke ground in 2011, is going to cost between $9 and $13 billion, and is expected to be completed in 2033. Please send the construction team over here next...

lultimouomo• 6 years ago

These pictures are rederings though.

hijp4• 6 years ago

Sure but from the main article I couldn't tell why they needed an underwater roundabout in the first place.

halgir8• 6 years ago

This article has photographs of the roundabout itself being decorated by a local artist:

https://portal.fo/dagur-36150/myndir-listaverkid-hja-trondi-...

mschuster912• 6 years ago

Rail construction is more expensive because the loads are way higher - axle loads of 22-25 metric tons are common (https://www.forschungsinformationssystem.de/servlet/is/32505...), trucks are half to a third of that (usually 8t/axle, legal limit in Germany are 10t). The forces on the rails are also greater especially if higher speeds are involved - trucks here have a limit of 80 km/h and buses 100 km/h, whereas trains reach triple that.

Symbiote• 6 years ago

But Hawaii is building a light metro system, with speeds of around 110km/h and an axle weight of about 10t (or less, I don't know how many axles there are).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honolulu_Rail_Transit

hijp4• 6 years ago

I don't know what the axle weight is but each car weighs 32.6 metric tons and travel in trains of 4-cars, the top speed is 88kmh (48kmh average).

https://planning.hawaii.gov/wp-content/uploads/HART-presenta...

https://www.honolulutransit.org/inform/rail-facts#gsc.tab=0

*edit - decimal

alistairSH• 6 years ago

More expensive than tunneling under the Atlantic?

torgard3• 6 years ago

They've been working day and night! :)

A friend of mine was department lead at a concrete company, the company responsible for providing and pouring the concrete for the tunnel.

At times he had insane, practically 24-hour work days, for weeks on end. A lot of overtime payments, sure. But he never had any free time, and was "on call" all hours of the day.

We would be drinking a couple of beers, and halfway through his first one, his phone rings; duty calls, gotta go.

Thankfully, he quit back in May. Now he drives trucks for a furniture company.

afandian• 6 years ago

That environment doesn't sound well managed or conducive to low-defect work to be honest.

awiesenhofer• 6 years ago

If you like the combination of scandinavia and infrastructure: norway is currently also working on an amazing project to connect their costal region via a new coastal highway featuring some stunning tunnel and bridge proposals:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCT-FurFVLQ

unhammer• 6 years ago

though it'll probably be delayed because they forgot that the wetlands they're building it through store lots of CO2 https://www.nrk.no/norge/xl/klimabombene-ingen-tenkte-pa-1.1...

blunte• 6 years ago

And soon, first truly literal interpretation of "underground drifting".

interfixus• 6 years ago

Obligatory nitpick: Faroe Island's. Should be Faroe Islands'.

JoeAltmaier• 6 years ago

That photograph is beautiful. A work of art! The arch spanning that grand space, the track lighting making it look like an image from space, the curved walls. Like nothing on Earth!

timoth• 6 years ago

It sounds like Norwegians were involved in building this, and they have precedent for this look. "hardanger bridge roundabouts" is a search term which will get you some pretty images for roundabouts like this. Admittedly they're not under the ocean, but they are underground at each end of the world's longest tunnel to tunnel suspension bridge. Underground funkily-lit roundabouts are pretty amazing!

lastofthemojito• 6 years ago

I was on vacation in Norway, driving from Oslo to Bergen, when I happened to take the Vallavik Tunnel and came across a roundabout in a tunnel for the first time in my life. The length of some of the Norwegian tunnels is mind-boggling enough (the Lærdal Tunnel is 24km/15 miles long!), but coming across a dramatically-lit roundabout in a tunnel made me feel like I was in Mario Kart or something, not the real world.

Faroe Island roundabout under the Atlantic Ocean

Related Stories