World’s longest purpose-built cycling tunnel opens in Norway
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There are many ways to explore the seven mountains surrounding the picturesque city of UNESCO World Heritage, the city of Bergen on the west coast of Norway. The most recent, however, could well be record.
A cycling and pedestrian tunnel three kilometers long (1.8 mile) was energized through the base of the Løvstakken mountain and that its manufacturers say that it is the longest specially designed tunnel of the genus.
Fyllingsdalstunnelen, as we know, opened on April 15 with a family day of sports activities, after four years of construction that started in February 2019. The Mega-project funded by the State cost nearly $ 29 million or 300 million Norwegian Kroner.
“We, Norwegians, are generally modest people,” said Camilla Einarsen Heggernes, spokesperson by railway company bybanen Utbygging, told CNN, “but in this case, we would say that the tunnel is 100% of the state of the art.”
It takes a little less than 10 minutes to browse the bicycle tunnel and about 40 if you walk on foot. To break the monotony of the tunnel without windows, there are a variety of artistic installations everywhere, as well as different colors and lighting to help users to place where they are traveling and offer a feeling of orientation.
At the central point is a “sundial” installation – where the sun will certainly never shine – which shows the time of day, helping again to guide visitors and break the line of view otherwise long. The tunnel is also perfectly straight, apart from slight curvatures at the entrance and exit.
If you are wondering how cyclists and pedestrians can use the same space, there are two lanes in the tunnel: a cycle route 3.5 meters wide and a 2.5 -meter -wide track for walkers and runners. “We laid a blue rubber floor throughout the tunnel, similar to a sports track, explains Einarsen Heggernes.” This makes him more pleasant to use than if we simply walked on asphalt. “”
The new tunnel appeared as a by-product of the second tram line of Bergen, which opened in November 2022. The tram line through the mountain required a parallel evacuation tunnel, the developers therefore decided to make the new versatile tunnel.
Bergen is the second largest city in Norway and the port city is linked to Oslo, the Norwegian capital, by the Bergensbanen railway line of 496 kilometers. This superb railway trip crosses the largest high mountain plateau in Europe, the hardangevidda, and its snow -capped views were the backdrop of the battle scenes of the “Star Wars” “the Empire Strikes Back”.
While fyllingsdalstunnelen presents itself as the longest cycling tunnel for world purposes, the reason for this warning is the 3.6 -kilometer long tunnel in Washington, just east of Seattle. This former train tunnel is now a passage for cyclists, runners and walkers and is part of the 250 mile palouses with Cascades State Park Trail.
Six European cities succeeded during the recent turn of CNN Travel of 10 of the cities most suited to bikes in the world. Copenhagen has 385 kilometers of cycle paths, after having introduced its first path in 1892. Strasbourg in France has around 6,000 bikes available in the 24/7 autonomy stations that tourists can use. And the Swiss capital of Bern has an exhilarating descent path for runners who feel the need for speed. The best piece is that cyclists can get a funicular to the top and then go down – no climbing control.
