Tendering for world-longest subsea road tunnel
Jan 2013
Peter Kenyon, TunnelTalk
- Norwegian Highways Authority Statens Vegvesen announces the open tender of the first of four tunnelling contracts for what will be the longest underwater road tunnel in the world once it is completed.
- Contract E-02, valued at up to NOK1.4 billion (US$158 million) is for half the alignment of the main 14.3km Solbakk tunnel between Tau and Hundvåg, as well as two tunnel portals.
- The contract forms part of the Ryfast mega-project, which in its entirety comprises a conventionally excavated tunnel link between the major city of Stavanger in the west and Tau in the east via three linked tunnels 23km in length. Once completed the undersea link will replace the current ferry crossing.
- "Bids for the first half of the Solbakk tunnel are now open," Project Manager Anne-Merete Gilje told TunnelTalk. "The final date for receipt of bids is 27 February. The second half of the Solbakk tunnel will be let out to tender in March," she added.
- According to the tender notice contract scope is for a twin tube tunnel alignment that will call for the blasting of 1.15 million m3 of rock. The roadway will be dual carriageway on each side. Completion is scheduled for February 2018, a five-year construction period.
- Contracts for drill+blast excavation of the 14.3km Solbakk subsea highway tunnel are awarded by the Norway state highways authority, Statens Vegvesen, to AF Gruppen and Swiss-based Marti Constructors.
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EO2 and E03 14.3km Solbakk Tunnel lots
- Norwegian contractor AF is awarded the E03 6.5km western section between Hundvåg and the island of Hidle for an ex-VAT contract price of NOK1.17 billion (US$195.5 million). Scope also includes excavation of the first 1.5km of the connecting Hundvåg Tunnel as far west as Buøy, where the tunnel will feature a surface ramp. Also included are construction of two entrance portals for the western end of the Solbakk Tunnel and two entrance portals for the eastern end of the Hundvåg Tunnel.
- The AF Gruppe section of the Solbakk Tunnel will reach a depth of 250m below sea level at an inclination of 80‰ for the first 1,500m, reducing to 27‰ for the remaining alignment eastwards to the joining point with Lot E02 under Hildle. Swiss-based Marti will construct the remaining 7.8km stretch of two-lane bidirectional tunnel for an ex-VAT price of NOK1.31 billion (US$220 million) under Lot E02. From Solbakk in the municipality of Tau, at the project's most eastern end, the alignment descends westwards at 80‰ for the first 4,000m to the project's deepest point at 291m below sea level, before rising at an inclination of 13‰ to meet the AF section of tunnel under Hidle (Fig 1, below).
- Open tendering for the 5.5km Hundvåg Tunnel and the 3.7km E39 tunnel that will link the subsea alignments with downtown Stavanger is expected to be completed later this year or early next year. Once finished in 2019 the four tunnels that together comprise the Ryfast project will be the longest subsea road tunnel in the world.
Norway begins highway link rollout
01 Oct 2013
Peter Kenyon, TunnelTalk
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Fig 1. Marti Constructors (E02) and AF Gruppe (EO3) awarded US$415 million Solbakk Tunnel
- The E-03 contract, due to be let in March (2012) is for construction of the second half of the Solbakk tunnel, which will be excavated eastwards from the island of Hundvåg. Two more tunnel contracts are expected to be let later in the year - the 5.7km Hundvåg tunnel, that will link with the Solbakk tunnel and run to the mainland via an exit ramp on the island of Hundvåg at Buøy, and the 3.9km road tunnel under the city of Stavanger that will form a continuous link with the undersea tunnels.
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Solbakk portal construction underway
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Tunnel portal at Tau
- The total cost of the project is estimated at US$1 billion. Once completed the Ryfast tunnels, at 23,900m long, will surpass the 18,680m-long Shin-Karmon tunnel in Japan, completed in 1975, as the longest underwater road tunnel in the world.
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New undersea mega-project for Norway - TunnelTalk, May 2012
Norway's mega-project to tender in Autumn - TunnelTalk, June 2012
Links across the waters: Straits Crossings conference report - TunnelTalk, January 2010
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