Two found dead after bridge collapse

Emergency crews worked into the night in the hopes of rescuing the occupants of a vehicle found under the rubble of a collapsed bridge in Trondheim Wednesday afternoon. They eventually were able to extract the driver of the car, who was dead, and later also found the body of one of the bridge’s construction workers. [...]

Bridge collapses in Trondheim

At least one person was missing and several injured after a bridge under construction collapsed on the outskirts of Trondheim Wednesday afternoon. Emergency crews were still scrambling to reach a car trapped under the rubble. Anders Bang Danielsen of the Trondheim police confirmed that at least six persons were injured when the unfinished bridge collapsed [...]

Boulder kills teenager in freak roadway accident

A 15-year-old girl who was riding in a car in Norway’s mountainous county of Sogn og Fjordane was killed Friday when a huge boulder suddenly broke loose from the steep mountainside and crashed down on the car. The driver of the car, a BMW, escaped with only minor injuries. Police said the dramatic, freak accident [...]

Avalanche and rockslide danger rises

Geologists were putting out new warnings of avalanches and rockslides in mountainous areas this week, as the spring thaw creates more hazards. Nine persons were caught in an avalanche in Hemsedal on Thursday, while a key highway outside Bergen was deemed highly dangerous. The steep mountains bordering the stretch of the E16 highway between Dale [...]

Reaction mixed to transport plan

Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg called it the biggest commitment to public transportation projects ever made in Norway, but his left-center government’s release of its new plan for transportation investment during the next 10 years was met with both enthusiasm and criticism over the weekend. Officials in Oslo, where traffic congestion is a major problem, weren’t [...]

Transport plans don’t meet goals

Norwegian politicians continue to spend huge amounts of public funds on bridges, roads and tunnels in outlying areas that benefit as few as a hundred residents or less, while hundreds of thousands of commuters in metropolitan areas are left to face heavy traffic or unreliable public transit systems every day. Now much of the justification [...]

County roads in worse shape than expected

Complaints have raged for years over the sorry state of Norwegian highways around the country, most of  which are just two lanes and narrow. A new report has confirmed that county roads are in even worse shape than the state highways, and that it will cost as much as NOK 75 billion to make needed [...]

Warmer winter weather turned fatal

After an extended period of bitterly cold temperatures, thermometers rose especially in southern Norway over the weekend. Fresh snow that turned to rain in some areas, however, led to slippery roads and extremely hazardous driving conditions from north to south. Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) reported multiple accidents and traffic that could only be described as chaotic. [...]

French tourist jailed for speeding

A French tourist who was caught driving at excessive speed over a scenic mountain highway in north-central Norway has lost his driver’s license and been sentenced to 18 days in prison. It’s an unusually harsh punishment, especially against a visitor to Norway, but prosecutors claimed the French motorist put others’ lives in danger. Newspaper Avisa [...]

Stunning roads blend old and new

Norway’s network of  Nasjonal turistveger (National Tourist Routes) keeps expanding, offering motorists what can amount to the rides of their lives. It’s not the destination but the trip itself, and enhancements along the way, that can leave the most jaded traveler stunned. Statens vegvesen, formally known as the Norwegian Public Roads Administration, started working on [...]

Road toll system baffles visitors

Thousands of drivers of foreign-registered vehicles on Norwegian roads aren’t paying road tolls, not necessarily because they’re trying to cheat the system, but because they don’t understand how the automatic toll system works. Some end up getting a surprise bill in the mail after they’ve arrived back home. Norwegian officials can only hope the visitors [...]

Stoltenberg shakes up government

Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg announced the replacement on Monday of two Center Party ministers in the government coalition he leads. The shake-up is widely viewed as a means of strengthening both his Labour Party-led government and the Center Party itself, which now has so little voter support that it’s dangerously close to losing its right [...]

Driving costs shift into high gear

As the summer driving season sets in, comes news that the already-high costs of driving a car in Norway have accelerated in recent years. Higher fuel prices, higher fees and, not least, more tolls have all made car ownership and driving pricier than ever before. Newspaper Aftenposten headlined a recent summary of the costs of [...]

New highway project takes a toll

A long-awaited expansion of the E6 highway opened this week north of Oslo’s main airport at Gardermoen, but the road improvement comes at a stiff price. Motorists will eventually face no less than six toll gates when the 65-kilometer (40-mile) stretch between Gardermoen and Hamar finally is completed in 2014. Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and [...]

Building firms fined for price-fixing

State competition authorities have hit two large construction firms with heavy fines after some employees were found to have set prices on road-building projects. One of the firms, though, may avoid paying its fine. The case stems back to 2005, when employees of Veidekke and rival firm NCC started cooperating on the price of asphalt [...]

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