More than a third of ”Eysturoyartunnilin”, the subsea-tunnel which will connect the island of Streymoy to the island of Eysturoy, has now been completed.
Faroese news site Portal.fo reports today that 105 meters of the tunnel were bored last week – 62 meters from Hvítanes on Streymoy and 38 meters from the roundabout between Strendur and Saltnes on Eysturoy.
In Februry, Portal.fo reported that a third of the tunnel had been completed – i.e. 3.770 meters: 1.963 meters from Strendur and 1.807 meters from Hvítanes.
The overall length of the subsea-tunnel will be 11.24 km. The road length from Hvítanes to the roundabout will be 7.5 km, while the road length from the roundabout to Strendur and to Saltnes will be 1.7 km and 2.2 km, respectively.
Work on the undersea tunnel started on February 21, 2017, and the tunnel is expected to open to drivers in 2020.
After that the work on ”Sandoyartunnilin”, the undersea tunnel which will connect the island of Streymoy to the island of Sandoy, will commence.
There are currently two sub-sea tunnels in the Faroe Islands: one sub-sea tunnel connects the western island of Vágar (Airport) to the island of Streymoy (capital Tórshavn), while the other sub-sea tunnel connects the northern island of Borðoy (Klaksvík) to the island of Eysturoy (Leirvík).
Vágatunnilin opened to drivers in 2002, while Norðoyatunnilin opened in 2006.
Sweden-based construction company NCC built ”Vágatunnilin” and ”Norðoyatunnilin” in the 00´s and is also in charge of building the undersea tunnel between Streymoy and Eysturoy.