New Norwegian bridge open to traffic

A new bridge is now open to traffic in Norway. The Hålogaland Bridge has a total length of 1,533m and a main span of 1,145m and is Norway's second longest suspension bridge. The structure was designed by COWI and crosses the deep waters of Rombaksfjorden in northern Norway. The bridge will improve road safety, as well as reducing the distance between Narvik and Bjerkvik by 18km. The pre-existing route around Rombaksfjorden is frequently exposed to landslides and the opening of the bridge shortens travel tim
December 11, 2018 Read time: 2 mins
COWI and Dissing+Weitling are both proud of the design work they put into the aesthetic new Hålogaland Bridge in northern Norway

A new bridge is now open to traffic in Norway. The Hålogaland Bridge has a total length of 1,533m and a main span of 1,145m and is Norway's second longest suspension bridge. The structure was designed by 8721 COWI and crosses the deep waters of Rombaksfjorden in northern Norway. The bridge will improve road safety, as well as reducing the distance between Narvik and Bjerkvik by 18km. The pre-existing route around Rombaksfjorden is frequently exposed to landslides and the opening of the bridge shortens travel time between Narvik and the airport of Evenes by 20 minutes.

As the project engineer, long-span bridge specialist COWI provided the basic and detailed design for the bridge. The architect for the project was Dissing+Weitling architecture.

Located inside the Arctic Circle, the bridge features two 179m A-shaped towers. Poul Ove Jensen, director of Bridges at Dissing+Weitling, commented: “The bridge is located in a dramatic and magnificent scenery and for this reason, it has been our goal to design the bridge in respect of the natural surroundings. The anchor blocks are recessed in the hills and the only visible parts are the large concrete cones that receives the cable. Even the colours for the bridge are in harmony with the landscape's colours.”

COWI chief project manager Erik Sundet commented: “Opportunities to work on projects like this come very rarely for an engineer – and when they do, they block your calendar for so many years that you do not have time for many other projects on the same scale."

have collaborated on several projects including the Stonecutters Bridge in Hong Kong and Denmark’s Great Belt Link. They also worked together on the concept design of the Bjørnafjord Bridge, a multispan floating bridge which plans to use technology from the offshore industry to cross another deep – and wide – Norwegian fjord, the Bjørnafjorden.

Road Structures

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • PPRS: the positive side of structural failures
    March 27, 2018
    You learn from your failures, not your successes. That was the overall message for delegates during the day-two morning session on the impact of engineering structural failures. These lessons are also too often “painful”, said Anne-Marie Leclerq, deputy minister for infrastructure within the ministry of transport for the Canadian province of Quebec. On September 30, 2006, a span of the six-lane Concorde Bridge in Laval, near Montreal, collapsed crushing to death five people and injuring six. Only recently
    Read More
  • The Fehmarnbelt Tunnel, another Danish connection
    June 20, 2017
    The Fehmarnbelt Tunnel between Denmark and Germany is both ambitious and innovative, explains Susanne Kalmar Pedersen, project director at design engineering firm Ramboll, adviser to the client Fehmarn A/S. The ambitious Fehmarnbelt Tunnel - one of Europe’s largest ongoing infrastructure projects - is a priority project within the EU’s Trans European Network (TEN-T) programme. It will link the German island of Fehmarn with the Danish island of Lolland. The tunnel is an 18km immersed combined road and rail l
    Read More
  • Mersey Gateway Bridge has won IABSE’s Outstanding Structure Award
    June 25, 2019
    The UK’s Mersey Gateway Bridge has picked up the Outstanding Structure Award 2019 from IABSE, the International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering*. Judges described the bridge, designed by Cowi, as "an elegantly integrated solution for a multi-span concrete cable stay bridge in which form follows function". "Everyone involved with the design and construction the Mersey Gateway Bridge over the past six years knows that this is an incredibly special structure,” said Paul Sanders, Cowi’s
    Read More
  • Mersey Gateway Bridge has won IABSE’s Outstanding Structure Award
    September 19, 2019
    The UK’s Mersey Gateway Bridge has picked up the Outstanding Structure Award 2019 from IABSE, the International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering* Judges described the bridge, designed by Cowi, as "an elegantly integrated solution for a multi-span concrete cable stay bridge in which form follows function". "Everyone involved with the design and construction the Mersey Gateway Bridge over the past six years knows that this is an incredibly special structure,” said Paul Sanders, Cowi’s p
    Read More

Highlighted Content