Folgefonntunnelen runs 11.15 kilometres under the Folgefonna glacier, connecting Austrepollen in Kvinnherad to Eitrheim near Odda. When it opened in June 2001, it cut the travel time between these two communities from four hours to ten minutes. It is Norway's fourth longest road tunnel.
Before the turn of the millennium, communities on the Folgefonna peninsula were effectively islands. Getting anywhere meant boats, ferries, and long detours around fjords and mountains. The tunnel changed that overnight. Combined with the Jondal Tunnel that followed in 2012 and a ferry crossing, this is now the quickest route between Odda and Bergen, a journey that previously required a huge detour and at least one or two ferry crossings. It also shortens the Oslo-Bergen route via Haukeli.
The project was controversial in the 1990s. An alternative proposal pushed for a bridge across the Ã…krafjord instead, and the debate between tunnel and bridge divided communities in the region before the tunnel option won out.
Before the turn of the millennium, communities on the Folgefonna peninsula were effectively islands. Getting anywhere meant boats, ferries, and long detours around fjords and mountains. The tunnel changed that overnight. Combined with the Jondal Tunnel that followed in 2012 and a ferry crossing, this is now the quickest route between Odda and Bergen, a journey that previously required a huge detour and at least one or two ferry crossings. It also shortens the Oslo-Bergen route via Haukeli.
The project was controversial in the 1990s. An alternative proposal pushed for a bridge across the Ã…krafjord instead, and the debate between tunnel and bridge divided communities in the region before the tunnel option won out.
