- published: 15 Jul 2014
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Hvalfjörður (Icelandic: Whale-fjord) is situated in the west of Iceland between Mosfellsbær and Akranes. The fjord is approximately 30 km long and 5 km wide.
The name Hvalfjörður is derived from the large number of whales which could be found and caught there. Until the 1980s, one of the biggest whaling stations in Iceland was located in this fjord. In the past the fjord also contained a large number of herring fisheries.
During World War II, a naval base of the British and American navies could be found in this fjord. One of the piers built by the United States Navy was later used by the Hvalur whaling company, until commercial whaling was shut down in the 1980s.
Until the late 1990s, those travelling by car had to make a long detour of 62 km around the fjord on the hringvegur (road no.1), in order to get from the city of Reykjavík to the town of Borgarnes. As of 1998, the tunnel Hvalfjarðargöngin, which shortens the trip considerably, was opened to public traffic. The tunnel is approximately 5,762 m in length, and cuts travel by car around the fjord by about an hour. The tunnel runs to a depth of 165 m below sea level.
Hvalfjörður Tunnel (Hvalfjarðargöng in Icelandic) is a road tunnel under the Hvalfjörður fjord in Iceland and a part of the Route 1 (Iceland's ring road). It is 5,762m long and reaches depth of 165m below sea level. Opened on 11 July 1998, it shortens the distance from Reykjavík to the western and northern parts of the island by 45 km. Passing the fjord now takes 7 minutes instead of about an hour before.
Spolur was the company that constructed, and is now the owner and operator of the tunnel, while the company Verkís handled almost all of the aspect of the design of the Hvalfjörður sub-sea tunnel. This project was a milestone in construction as it was the first private finance initiative without direct funding by the state treasury.
The Hvalfjörður Tunnel received a bad rating in the 2010 European tunnel test, which is carried out annually by the German automobile club ADAC. Different aspects were criticized and are also mentioned in the EuroTAP test (see external links), especially the weak lighting, absence of an automatic fire alarm system, too weak ventilation in case of a fire and a far distance to the next fire station (28 km). There are alcoves every 500m to facilitate turning around, and the storage capacity for water leakage is 2,000m^3.