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

  • Construction of Fehmarn Belt Link could start in 2019
    February 27, 2018
    Construction of a Fehmarn Belt Link could start a year from now – more than a year ahead of schedule, according to Danish media reports. The timing was put forward by Holger Schou Rasmussen, chairman of Femernbælt Development, and Kristian Pihl Lorenzen, the Liberal Party spokesman for traffic issues. They reportedly said that a pending environmental court case in Germany that has stalled approval by German authorities won’t hold up construction of the 18km crossing as much as had been feared. As late as
    Read More
  • Helsinki approves the Crown Bridges – Kruunusillat - project
    September 22, 2016
    Helsinki City Council has approved construction of the Crown Bridges – Kruunusillat – Project, that at 3km will be the longest bridge in Finland. The bridge will carry pedestrians, cyclists and trams between the city centre and the 143 hectare Kruunuvuorenranta development to the east which will have over 580,000m² of residential space and 6,000 housing units. The centrepiece of the €259 million scheme, as designed by WSP Finland and Knight Architects, will be the 1.2km span crossing of the main bay,
    Read More
  • Pre-stressed bridge decks use modular formwork system
    July 9, 2012
    Imaginative formwork, often using modular components, is helping to shape some challenging bridges worldwide. Patrick Smith reports Traffic volumes in and around Prague have swollen massively in recent years, pushing the existing road network to the limits of its capacity. To permanently ease congestion in the Czech capital's centre, a multi-lane orbital motorway is under construction as a high capacity bypass for central Prague and to link up all the motorways and other major highways radiating from the ci
    Read More
  • Sealing the world's longest tunnel
    April 10, 2012
    Infrastructure construction in China is booming as never before, but sealing the world’s longest immersed tunnel is a technically complex engineering project. The impressive Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau fixed link project in China includes an immersed tunnel with a record-breaking length of almost 7km. In 2009 construction began on a project to link the island of Hong Kong with Macau and the mainland Chinese city of Zhuhai. The link will be one of the region’s most technically complex engineering projects ever. I
    Read More

Highlighted Content