World’s first ship tunnel is to be erected in Stad, Vestland county. This will save a tremendous amount of time in navigating Norway waters.

Stad Ship Tunnel will be 1.7 kilometres long, 37 metres high and 26.5 metres wide, and it will be able to allow ships the size of Coastal Steamer (Hurtigruten) to navigate more safely through the very exposed Stadhavet Sea. 

Upon receiving the allocation letter from the Ministry of Transport and Communications, Norwegian Coastal Administration (NCA), the building process has begun with the goal of signing a contractor this year.

“Based on the allocation letter, we will now start the processes of acquisitioning properties in the area where the ship tunnel will be located, as well as put in place a project organization, prepare a tender basis and initiate a tender,” Terje Andreassen, NCA temporary project manager for the Stad Ship Tunnel, explains.

The tunnel has been deliberated for more than a century – with it first mooted in a newspaper article from 1874. The rough seas around Stad are notorious with historians observing how the Vikings often dragged their boats overland when bad weather came in more than a 1,000 years ago.

The construction of the project will begin in 2022 and its projected completion is 2025/2026.

The Norwegian Coastal Administration is a national agency for coastal management, maritime safety and preparedness against acute pollution. Learn more about this project here.