Eysturoyartunnilin

The idea for the Eysturoyartunnil emerged during the construction of and , opened in 2002 and 2006, which heralded a new look on domestic transport and regional development. In 2006, the private company was founded to build this tunnel. Due to the 2008 financial crisis, it took the stakeholders several years to materialize the plans and get political support. The tunnel was included in the 2012 national mobility plan, which abandoned the name and thereafter exclusively named it . In June 2013, another private company, , was established in order to pursue a deal between the Faroese national government, the Faroese insurance company and the Danish-owned Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP). CIP made secret arrangements with the Faroese minister for transport, Kári P. Højgaard, who had to resign in early September as this became public. This led to a small political crisis. In 2015, after the outcome of an official inquiry, the cabinet of Kaj Leo Johannesen had to call for early elections. Both and were liquidated in 2015, after about two years of inactivity. Meanwhile, in the aftermath of the political crisis of 2013, a special commission drafted a proposal for a public rather than a private solution. This proposal was supported by all parties and in 2014 led to the establishment of a public company, (in short 'EStunlar' or EST). This company, owned entirely by the Ministry of Transport, builds, owns and manages both the and the . NCC was contracted to carry out the construction works for both tunnels. The financial coupling (cross subsidization) between the two tunnels is necessary since is not expected to generate sufficient ridership to recover its own investment via its own tolls alone, while is expected to have surplus capacity. As a result, the tolls for will not decrease as traffic numbers increase (price inelasticity). Only when the construction investments for both tunnels have been sufficiently been earned back could tolls be reduced. This differs from and where tolls dropped gradually with time. Another difference is that does not replace a ferry route, so tolls cannot be compared to ferry ticket prices. == Construction ==

On 8 November 2016, a deal was struck with the Scandinavian construction company NCC to construct the Eysturoy tunnel as well as the Sandoy tunnel. The contract for both tunnels is for , whilst the overall cost for both tunnels is estimated at around The drilling of the tunnel itself started on 21 February from the Strendur side and on 27 April 2017 from the side. The Strendur team reached the underwater roundabout section on 4 December 2017, at which point had been dug from both sides combined. With the first leg and roundabout completed, a third drilling team started, with two teams on the Hvítanes-roundabout leg working towards each other (which met underwater on 7 June 2019) and one from the roundabout to Saltnes. The last blast occurred on 7 June 2019, after which tarmacking, cabling, installing emergency facilities and signposting took several months. Meanwhile, NCC moved the tunnel boring machine to , which started on 27 June 2019. While the expected opening date was 1 December 2020, due to technical delays and COVID-19 this was postponed to 19 December 2020. == Specifications ==

The tunnel is a two-laned undersea tunnel that has three tubes that meet at an underwater roundabout, below the surface of the fjord. The tunnel is long from the entrance at in Saltnes to the roundabout, and the distance from at Strendur to the roundabout is . The main branch from to the roundabout measures and resurfaces by the village of . This results in an overall road length of , In order to increase safety, no incline in the tunnel is steeper than 0.5 per cent, and the lowest point is below the water's surface. == Art in the tunnel ==

The roundabout is fitted with metal artwork by the Faroese artist Tróndur Patursson, as well as lighting effects. Each tunnel portal features a sequence of freestanding concrete and lit arches, as landmarks. == The opening ==

The opening of the tunnel for general traffic was on 19 December 2020, which was 18 years and 9 days after the opening of the first subsea tunnel in the Faroe Islands, connecting with Vágar Airport. For there was a ceremony with speeches and music before the tunnel opened, which was broadcast live by the Faroese Television KVF. Emergency response vehicles had been allowed to use the tunnel a few months before opening. == Impact ==

When the tunnel opened in December 2020, it significantly reduced travel times to the capital. The tunnel shortened the travel distance from to / from to . The 64-minute drive has been cut to 16 minutes. The drive from to was reduced from 68 minutes to 36 minutes. On the Eysturoy side of the tunnel house prices increased by 31% between 2019 and 2020 and have doubled between 2015 and 2020. Strandfaraskip Landsins changed its bus route network in response to the tunnel's opening, but was pressed by the public along the route to restore the old network after a few months. This means that the trunk route 400 connecting to remains taking the old, 30-minute-longer route via . A rush-hour express service (route 401) between and was inserted that uses the , as well as a much more frequent 'Tunnel route' (route 450) between , and /, from where route 440 connects to villages along the fjord. This means that passengers between and can opt for either a transfer-free longer route (route 400), or save about 30 minutes by taking either the express route (rush hours on working days) or a double-transfer trip (routes 450 -, 440 - and 400 -). The national government and municipality agreed on the construction of a bypass between the tunnel mouth and the town limits of , in order to alleviate the increasing traffic through the town streets once the tunnel has opened. This road, named (), is going to be built on the shoreline. The budget for a new express way between and , , was agreed on by the national government and Tórshavn Municipality in June 2021. The road includes a short tunnel (Húsareynstunnilin) and opened on 6 July 2025. == Tolls and traffic numbers ==

In December 2020 the toll prices were announced by the agency Tunnil. For cars with a toll registration (), the initial tolls () on the section - ranged from for a small car (up to ) and for vans to for lorries and for large buses (19 seats or more). For local traffic between Saltnes and Strendur, the fees were , , and , respectively. Tolls are levied for travel in both directions, unlike and , which charge tolls only one way. Tunnil claims that the saved travel time, fuel and wear compensates for the increased travel costs on the main routes between , southern and the northern isles. The financial compensation for commuters () was extended to include a compensation of per leg for the tolls. The projected traffic numbers were 6,000 for 2022, of which 5,100 between and and 900 between both sides of the . The tunnel would generate 3,600 new daily crossings. However, apart from the opening day (14,700 vehicles in twelve hours) and the toll-free introduction month that ended on 10 January 2021 (average daily ridership 7,500 vehicles), traffic numbers dropped steeply. The first week (which included night-time closures for maintenance) saw 3,151 vehicles per day, the second week 3,647 vehicles per day and the third week 3,764 vehicles per day. In July the ridership was 4,500 vehicles. These numbers include all directions on both - and - itineraries. All in all, the lower-than-expected ridership raises questions about the financial outlook for both and . Public pressure is mounting to reduce the fees in order to raise ridership. Opponents of the high tolls claim to prefer the old, longer route. Along this route through the , a traffic count in the suggests about 900 cars continue to use the old route. Ridership between November 2024 and October 2025 averaged 6,386 vehicles per day. == See also ==