Feeling Down? Norway Spent US$ 180m on a Proverbial Bridge to Nowhere
That is, on the 'planning' phase--and, no, not a single centimetre of road has been paved yet, with the total price tag coming in at US$ 3.6b (projected; I think it'll be way more)
Every now and then, reports about gigantic waste appear in legacy media, and to honour the on-going clearing-out of these Augean stable in the US, here’s a comparable piece from Norway.
Translation, emphases, and [snark] mine.
2 Billion Spent on Planning—Everything May Be Shelved
The planning of a ferry-free road [from Stavanger to Bergen] has cost over NOK 2 billion [approx. US$ 180m]. So far, nothing has been built, and the future is completely up in the air.
By Olav Røli and Gisle Jørgensen, NRK, 14 Feb. 2025 [source]
One of the largest transport projects in Norway.
This is how the Norwegian Public Roads Administration itself presents the Hordfast project on its website.
The ferry-free link between the Vestland municipalities of Stord, Bjørnafjorden and Tysnes will reduce travelling time between Stavanger and Bergen by over an hour.
The price tag is well over NOK 40 billion [ca. US$ 3.6b]. But whether it will materialise is completely up in the air.
NOK 40 billion is far more than the much-discussed Blix tunnel in Akershus [36 billion NOK, or US$ 3.2b] and Norway’s most expensive road project to date, the Sotra link outside Bergen [23 billion NOK, or US$ 2b; needless to say, both projects are delayed…].
Several ferry routes are to be removed. Instead, the fjords will be crossed by two huge bridges.
‘This is Western Norway’s intercity,’ says Kjell Inge Davik, Development Director at the Norwegian Public Roads Administration.
Communists see Red
The Norwegian Public Roads Administration has been planning the project for a long time. And now they are in the home stretch.
In the next few days, they will submit a government zoning plan to the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development.
The price tag—for planning alone—had already reached NOK 2 billion last winter [for a bloody road and two bridges, none of which has, of course, ever been planned, let alone built, before].
Not a single centimetre of road has been built for that money [feeling down still?]
NRK has asked the Ministry of Transport and Communications for updated figures. They do not have them [would they release them if they had them?].
And now the entire project faces an uncertain future.
When the National Transport Plan was pushed through in Parliament last spring, the project was no longer prioritised.
Several parties want this to be the fate also in the future.
‘This is a waste of public funds’, says Sofie Marhaug (R [Communists]), who now wants the entire project to be shelved for good [who received all these 2+ billion Norwegian Crowns for ‘planning™’?].
The Norwegian Public Roads Administration: One of the most Important Projects in Norway
Davik at the Norwegian Public Roads Administration defends the use of money. One of the reasons is that the project is technologically complex.
‘This is the most extensive project I have ever planned. 75% of the planning costs are technology development’ [remember, we’re talking about two bridges and roads], says Davik, who at the end of January was a guest at a road conference in Aksdal in Rogaland.
In 2033, it will be possible to travel ferry-free from Aksdal and Haugesund to Stavanger in less than an hour when the Rogfast undersea tunnel is completed [here, I can see the complex planning/building aspect—but the bridges?].
In Davik's opinion, the entire route between Stavanger and Bergen must be ferry-free:
Hordfast is the most profitable project we have in Norway [for whom?].
He rejects the idea that the project has been shelved for good.
In a comment to NRK, State Secretary Tom Kalsås (Labour) in the Ministry of Transport writes that the government has decided that the zoning plan for the project will be completed.
‘This will provide the best basis for assessing the project when the portfolio is rolled out at a later date when the room for manoeuvre permits’, he says [translation: we’ll milk the coffers for a bit longer before deciding to pull the plug].
Ingunn Handagard, press officer at NAF [Norway’s Driver’s Federation], which is critical of the project, believes this points to a larger problem with road construction in Norway.
‘Hordfast is not the only project that has disappeared in and out of the plans over time. The bigger issue is how we plan major development projects that are often subject to political horse-trading,’ she says.
Gotta Break Eggs to Make an Omelette
A report by Osloeconomics and Norconsult, presented earlier this month, states that large housing and labour markets have a major impact [this is insane: everyone knows that population growth is driven exclusively by immigration; with sentiments turning against sustained mass-immigration, and decreasing birth rates, none of these investments make long-term sense].
Among other things, they refer to the development of the E6 motorway between Oslo and Svinesund, which according to the report has increased value creation and commuting to and from Oslo and Bærum [this, too, is totally expectable—just look at LA’s freeway system: build more roads, get more traffic; since we’re all supposed to stop driving before too long, why build more roads?]
‘We must have the same framework conditions as they have in southern Norway, otherwise we will lose the competition. They also have railways parallel to their motorways, which we don't have. So we must at least have an efficient road,’ says Øyvind Halleraker, CEO of Stavanger2Bergen (formerly Hordfast AS).
For many decades he has fought for a ferry-free road between Bergen and Stord, and onwards to Stavanger.
He is fully aware that the project will have a major impact on nature [keep this angle in mind, I’ll have another piece on Norway and this topic in the pipeline].
But to use an image: You have to break a few eggs to make an omelette. And I don’t think any politician in Western Norway would dare to shelve this project. Otherwise, Bergen and old Hordaland will be left behind [huhum, would that constitute a kind of threat? I mean, this is the CEO of the company that stands to milk the public coffers for this project—just sayin’].
Party Veteran Says Flatly No
For as long as Halleraker has fought in favour of the project, another political veteran has fought against it.
Former MP Kjellbjørg Lunde (SV [Socialist Left]) has been in fierce debates with Halleraker on several occasions.
She is strongly opposed. ‘Both because of nature encroachment, but also because the toll rates are too high.’ [ah, why don’t you stop farming out these user fees, then? I mean, as a Leftie, what’s not to like about the nationalisation of these roads?]
We don’t need such a gigantic project. It’s been recognised for a long time that the project is oversized, costs too much and is not something people want.
Do you think anyone will call you backward?
I think I’m in favour of the future, while those who are still going along with this are backward-looking.
Bottom Lines
In case you’re feeling down, just consider that the Norwegian gov’t spent in excess of 2 billion Norwegian Crowns (about US$ 180m) to ‘plan’ the construction of a road and two bridges.
In case you’re feeling useless, consider that those in favour of this project will keep telling themselves that they are doing a swell job (before they gaslight you about the benefits of the project).
In case you’re thinking, ‘wait a moment, this sounds totally bonkers’, well, that’s because it is. But don’t take my word for it, just consider the main finding of the report by Osloeconomic and Norconsult:
The greatest potential lies in and around the largest living and labour market regions. It is therefore important to ensure that these regions continue to interact and function well.
No shit analysis.
But then again, Norway is filthy rich and can afford to spread the wealth around to pretend to ‘work™’ on this or that.
The weirdest aspect of this project, though, is that these consulting agencies thrash-talk the government’s National Transportation Plan (NTP) in no uncertain terms:
The organisation of the national planning work in the NTP should be reconsidered. There is a need for a more comprehensive, long-term, and strategic framework for the National Transport Plan. Consideration should therefore be given to whether the process should move from project prioritisation and portfolio management to setting a more strategic, comprehensive and overall direction for the transport sector in Norway.
Basically, these two consulting agencies are saying: the gov’t f****** up.
If you thought that the price tag of 2 billion crowns (US$ 180m) for ‘planning’ is wasteful spending, well, let’s see if they actually break ground on the 40 billion project, which I fully expect to be marred by cost overruns, grift, and, of course, a whole range of extra-stupid things, such as the gov’t mandating all-electric construction vehicles:
Will the connection be built? I don’t know, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they began construction, wasted tons of money, and stop half-way through.
Norway appears to like such boondoggles, incl. most prominently the Stad Ship Tunnel, said to commence construction in 2025, according to Kystverket, the Norwegian Coastal Administration:
If everything goes as planned, the contract could be signed in the fall of 2025, with construction starting in early 2026. This is contingent on receiving bids within the project’s budget framework. The estimated construction period is approximately five years.
If you’re wondering about the price tag—4.09 billion crowns (2021), which corresponds to 5.09 billion crowns (2025).
And now consider the fact that the ‘planning’ alone for the road plus two bridges cost 2+ billion crowns before a single centimetre of road was paved.
So, enjoy your day, I suppose.
Oil money plus unimaginative bureaucrats equals stupidly overpriced highway projects.
I wonder if Iceland has the same problems. The tunnel under the fjord to Akranes seems a completely bonkers scale of development for that size of country. But they built it.
I saw the 40bn, and immediately did as I always do when reading about (predictably failing) infrastructural investments in WEF/globalist-dominated nations:
"So if the same sum was invested in the pre-existing infrastructure, how much more efficient would it become?"
Say 40 000 000 000 NSK spent on more and larger ferries f.e. We can throw in maintenance in the cost as well.
Of course, improving pre-existing structures removes profit incentives from corporations and politicians. As does intelligent and effect-optimal solutions.
Look at a map of Scania and Denmark. Notice how much closer together Helsingör and Helsingborg is compared to Malmö and Copenhagen. Yet, the bridge was built between those two.
The logical logistical choice is H+H. Not only a shorter bridge, but traffic would bypass Malmö and Copenhagen completely, removing the need for extensive expensive rebuildings and redrawings of highways et c.
But Malmö and Copenhagen had more political clout and putting the bridge where it is was more profitable to capitalists, and also prestigeful (except for all the East European workers who died building it), so it is where it's at.
I bring this up because I'm certain the exact same is in play in Norway: prestige, profiteering and political pull outweighing logic and logistics.