Tromsøysund Tunnel

The Tromsøysund Tunnel (Norwegian: Tromsøysundtunnelen) is an undersea highway tunnel under the "Tromsøysund" sound, connecting the island of Tromsøya with the mainland in Tromsø, Norway.

The tunnel is part of European route E8, (whose Northern terminus is on the island itself) and consists of a pair of tubes, 3,500 and 3,386 meters long respectively, each with 2 lanes of traffic. The lowest point is 102 meters below sea level, and the maximum grade is 8.2%. The two tubes are linked by 15 service-tunnels.

When the tunnel opened in 1994, Tromsøya's only mainland connection, the Tromsø Bridge, had been severely congested for over a decade. The tunnel is located North of the bridge; on the island side it emerges just below the University of Tromsø and the University Hospital of North Norway, both major sources of traffic between the island and the mainland; on the mainland side it emerges at "Tomasjord" which is centrally located between the densely popluated suburbs of Tromsdalen and Kroken.

External links

* [http://home.no.net/lotsberg/data/norway/list.html The World's Longest Tunnel Page]