One of Europe’s largest infrastructure projects, The Stockholm bypass, is currently under development in Stockholm. It's a huge undertaking with opportunities for international companies to get involved.

The Stockholm bypass – or Förbifart Stockholm – is a new route for the European highway (E4) past the Swedish capital. With a budgeted construction cost of 3.1 billion euros, the link will be one of the longest road tunnels in the world. The aim is to relieve arterial roads and the inner city of traffic and reduce the vulnerability of the city’s traffic system. Just over 18 km of the total of 21 km of the link are in tunnels.

Johan Brantmark, the director of the project at the Swedish Transport Administration (Trafikverket), said that the land acquisition plan and environmental permits have been approved by the government, and that the actual construction work is planned to start in the spring of 2016.

The project also opens up opportunities for international contractors and construction companies.

Johan Brantmark explained that foreign firms are invited to tender for the opportunities to provide the tunnels and civil works, which are expected to cost 2 billion euros over the next two years.

The Stockholm bypass is not the only big infrastructure project in the Swedish capital. Indeed, in recent years Stockholm has been undergoing a transportation revolution, Brantmark said.

The investment potential for the Stockholm region has increased by 16 billion Euro in the year that has passed and now amounts to more than 100 billion Euro until 2021. Beside the Stockholm bypass, two major drivers are 180,000 new housing units until 2030 and extension of the subway.

The Stockholm bypass in brief:

• Length: 21 km

• No. meters of main tunnel: 2x18 km

• Number of lanes: 3 lanes in each direction in two separate tunnel tubes

• Interchanges: 6

• Main highway bridge: 24,000 m2

• Total rock: 19 million tonnes

• Construction period: about 10 years

• Construction cost (2009 prices): 3.1 billion euro

Read the full story: www.swedishwire.com
Photo: Trafikverket (Swedish Transport Administration)