The new Ölfusá Bridge has been largely designed and is scheduled to be opened in the autumn of 2028. The local project manager says that work is about to begin on a grade-separated intersection connecting the new road from the bridge to Route 1 (the Ring Road).
It’s hardly comparable, but this morning Vísir reported on a massive suspension bridge planned to span the Strait of Messina, connecting Sicily to mainland Italy. The government of Giorgia Meloni in Italy has given the green light for the project. The bridge would be 3.3 kilometers long and, if completed, would become the longest suspension bridge in the world. The estimated cost of the project is €13 billion, around ISK 1,900 billion.
These figures are on a completely different scale from those for the Ölfusá Bridge, which is scheduled to be opened in the autumn of 2028. The contractor, ÞG Verk, is building the Ölfusá Bridge, and staff there were astonished by the enormous scale of the Italian project, which can hardly be compared to the one at home. The Ölfusá Bridge will be 330 meters long and 19 meters wide, with a total cost of about ISK 18 billion, intended to be covered by toll revenue.
New road junctions will be constructed east of Selfoss, along with an underpass beneath the Ring Road for pedestrians, cyclists, and horse riders, as well as underpasses for vehicles and pedestrians. In addition to traffic, the bridge will carry utility lines — electricity, fiber optics, hot water, and cold water.
Skúli Sigvaldason, the local project manager for the Ölfusá Bridge at ÞG Verk, says the design has been completed. It will be a cable-stayed bridge, where the bridge deck is supported by one or more pylons or towers with inclined steel cables. He says around 20 to 30 people are currently working on the project, which began with earthworks and road construction along a roughly 4-kilometer section of Route 1 in December.
“We have been working on road construction since then, and we are now starting on the grade-separated intersection east of the Ölfusá Bridge, which will connect the new road to Route 1. We have also begun preparing the concrete works for the foundations of the new Ölfusá Bridge.
The bridge has been largely designed. The bridge deck consists of steel beams with precast concrete elements on top, and a large tower will be built on an island to support the bridge. The current plan is for two lanes in one direction and one in the other, along with a pedestrian path, but there is the possibility of having two lanes in each direction with a pedestrian path on the outside of the bridge.”
Source: Visir.is
