Norway. Ryfast AS
| Date of agreement: | 06 Mar 2014 |
|---|---|
| Country: | Norway |
| Customer: | Ryfast AS |
| Amount in NOK: | NOK 1,000 million |
| Amount in EUR: | EUR 121.2 million |
| Maturity: | 25 years |
| NACE sector / loan type: | Construction |
Project
The loan has been provided for financing construction of two undersea tunnels to build a permanent road connection between Stavanger and Ryfylke.
At 14.3 kilometres, the Ryfylke tunnel will be the longest undersea road tunnel in the world. The other Hundvåg tunnel will be 5.7 kilometre long. Construction work started in summer 2013 and completion is expected at the end of 2018.
The new road will replace two ferry connections and reduce the average travel time by 45 minutes.
Ryfast AS is a special-purpose company with the sole purpose of financing the construction costs of the Ryfast project by charging toll fees until the year 2039. The company is owned by Rogaland County (57%), Stavanger Municipality (29%) and Strand Municipality (14%).
Fulfilment of NIB's mandate
Transportation infrastructure is essential to market efficiency. Shorter travel times increase economic efficiency by mitigating spatial frictions. This may increase competition in local markets and release resources from private travel and business transportation to more productive activities.
Since the population and the economy of the Stavanger area are growing rapidly, these benefits might reduce capacity constraints in housing markets in the long term, and hence, place downward pressure on housing prices.
All these impacts are likely to increase the depth of the local labour market, where extremely low unemployment rate and high inflation indicates that labour is in short supply.
The project is also in line with Norway’s National Transport Plan for 2010—2019.
Sustainability summary
Deposits of excavated material will be made in the sea, mainly close to the tunnel openings. When large quantities of excavated stone are deposited in the sea, some limited and temporal negative impact on lobsters and fish will occur.
At the southern tunnel entrance most of the excavated stone will be used to cover the port area sea bed. This sea bed is contaminated from previous industrial activities with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, polychlorinated biphenyls and various heavy metals. The process will be arranged to hinder the spread of these hazardous contaminants. It will be carried out in such a way as to avoid disturbing contaminated clay deposits.
Water from the tunnels, such as groundwater or sea water, will be contaminated with stone dust, chemical rests from the blasting, oil and plastic fibres. To avoid contamination of the sea, all water from the tunnels will be treated in a waste water treatment plant.
All in all, the positive potential effect will counteract the negative effects and result in a neutral potential impact on the environment.
