For a look at the current situation of the network as it is today, check this link out:

Link to map (http://img209.echo.cx/my.php?image=swemotorvag3qk.jpg)

So, here we go for the new projects...

E4

E4 is an "important national route" as it starts in the harbour of Helsingborg and end at the Finnish border in Haparanda, a stretch of 1500 kilometres. On this route there are now two especially important projects.

In the south, a new section of motorway is being constructed past Markaryd, 18 kilometres. The most spectacular bit is where the road crosses the river of Lagan, as a 350 m. long bridge is under construction. It goes 25 metres above Lagan.

http://www.vv.se/filer/18272/bro.jpg

Construction pictures:

http://www.vv.se/filer/17962/bron_lagan_apr05.jpg
http://www.vv.se/filer/17962/laganbron_mar05.jpg
http://www.vv.se/filer/17962/laganbro_nov04.jpg

Once it has been given over to traffic, there will be only a 30 km stretch past Ljungby before we have a motorway between Malmö and Stockholm. But it sadly looks like this "gap" will remain as a gap for a long time :(

In the north, a 78 km long motorway section between Uppsala and Mehedeby is under way. Construction on this enormous project commenced in spring 2002 and will be given over to traffic in October 2007.
http://www.vv.se/filer/14999/Hel_karta_gif.gif
http://www.davidlarsson.se/e4upp/e4upp068m.jpg

For more information ( in Swedish) and pictures:
http://www.vv.se/templates/page3____3837.aspx
http://www.davidlarsson.se/e4upp/

E6

E6 is the west coast route and connects Norway with Gothenburg, Malmö and the harbours along the Swedish west coast. The road starts in Trelleborg where it right now is only a 2-lane casual piece of road. There are plans however for an extension of the motorway from Vellinge, where it ends right now, to Trelleborg. Hopefully construction starts 2006/7. You can see the proposal here:
http://www.vv.se/filer/24631/vagforslaget_E6.pdf

In the north the new Svinesundsbron between Sweden and Norway is to be inaugerated 10th June 2005.
http://www.svinesundsinvigningen.com/

Construction pics from this bridge. Yeee, it´s really impressive! :cheers:
http://www.vv.se/filer/18203/_030506_25.jpg
http://www.vv.se/filer/18203/_0312_8.jpg
http://www.vv.se/filer/18242/_040723_30_54.jpg
http://www.vv.se/filer/23794/050225_6_2.jpg

Some other facts about the current motorway construction along the route between Sweden and Norway:
Status E6 Uddevalla-Oslo
1. Torp – Kallsås 5 km, klar juni 2004
2. Kallsås – Saltkällan 5 km, klar 2007
3. Saltkällan - Håby 7 km, 2004-2007
4. Rabbalshede – Hogdal 50 km kan bli klar 2009
5. Svinesundsförbindelsen klar 2005
6. Riksgrensen - Svingenskogen 4,5 km, klar 2005
7. Svingenskogen - Årum 18 km, klar 2008
8. Årum - Alvim 2,5 km, klar 2008
9. Alvim - Åsgård 13,7 km, klar 2009
10. Åsgård - Halmstad 10,7 km, klar 2005
11. Halmstad - Patterød 7,4 km, klar september 2004
12. Vinterbru - Assurtjern, troligen klar2009
13. Assurtjern – Klemetsrud, klar september 2004


E18

This year two projects are finally to get started on E18. The first one is an extension east of Karlstad. The five km piece of motorway will be built where the existing motorway in Karlstad ends. Construction is to be commenced in Autumn.
http://www.vv.se/filer/25425/karta_stor.jpg

The other project is a new motorway west of Örebro. The current road is a narrow and notorious route, well-known for the many accidents that occurs there. Construction is to commence in late Autumn/December this year.
http://www.vv.se/filer/20864/lekhyttan_orebro_andrad.jpg

The motorway ends at Köping. Between Köping-Enköping it is not motorway except a stretch of an urban motorway through Västerås. Construction of a new stretch of motorway west of Enköping (though it won´t go as far as Västerås) may start next year.
http://www.vv.se/filer/24484/E18_stor.gif

An old "headache" in Stockholm has been the stretch of E18 from Hjulsta to the inner city. In the 1970´s it was planned that a new motorway was to be built in Järvafältet, but enviormental protests changed the plans. It is one of the most congested roads in Sweden with 44000 vehicles a day on an ordinary 2-lane stretch. Construction may begin 2007.
http://www.vv.se/filer/7781/Kopia%20av%20Karta-040623.jpg

Riksväg 23 (national route 23)

A short piece of motorway but here it is. Not more than 2 kilometres long and bypass the village Sandsbro northeast of Växjö. They still haven´t decided if it is going to be signed as a motorway or not but construction started in February this year and is built with a motorway standard. According to latest plans the stretch should be given over to traffic in June 2006.
http://www.vv.se/filer/6601/sandsbro_karta.gif

Riksväg 50

The road between Borlänge and Falun ( I bet you know something about this, Atlantica :)) is to become a motorway. Construction started 2003 and it should be completed 2006.
http://www.vv.se/filer/13990/Faxen5.jpg
http://www.vv.se/filer/13987/vy_aug.jpg


Ah well, don´t remember if there are any more Swedish motorway projects because I am a bit tired right now.. Anyone who knows better may correct me :)

i have not photos or info but they are building a big traffic unnel under åre to easy the traffic and stuff like that

Cool thread, and yes I know something about the motorway between Borlänge and Falun :D (not much though) Passed the construction a few times, and it will become bigger and broader than the previous road. There's a discussion right now if the limit should be 90 km/h or 110 km/h

i have not photos or info but they are building a big traffic unnel under åre to easy the traffic and stuff like that

Yup, but that tunnel is not going to be constructed as a motorway tunnel but as an ordinary single carriageway 2-lane in one tube. I dedicated this thread to Swedish motorways but what the heck... I am pragmatic :)

This is how the tunnel in Åre is going to look like. It has been built because of the WC in alpine sports that will take place in Åre 2007 so they decided to give the village a more natural connection with the mountains.

http://www.vv.se/filer/9904/bild_liten.jpg

http://www.vv.se/filer/Vägprojekt/LF6tentunneln20BB1.jpg
Nya E4:an mellan Uppsala och Mehedeby är Sveriges längsta motorvägsbygge. 78 km väg byggs samtidigt i hela sin sträckning och öppnas för trafik hösten 2007. Sträckan kommer att innehålla ett 40-tal broar och viadukter. Till detta kommer arbete med anslutningsvägar, på- och avfarter. På den mest trafikerade delen mellan Uppsala och Björklinge, har Vägverket beslutat använda betong som vägbeläggning.
yeah concrete :cheers it's the best

they're also building on Bärbyleden here in town, it will be linked to the new E4

http://************/53vbrn

An old "headache" in Stockholm has been the stretch of E18 from Hjulsta to the inner city. In the 1970´s it was planned that a new motorway was to be built in Järvafältet, but enviormental protests changed the plans. It is one of the most congested roads in Sweden with 44000 vehicles a day on an ordinary 2-lane stretch. Construction may begin 2007.
http://www.vv.se/filer/7781/Kopia%20av%20Karta-040623.jpg
The plans have been comming and going for this since the 70s (like you said). the reason for the current opposition is that there is a (more expensive) alternative that's getting support from many locals (and (v) and (mp)). That option is for a tunnel under the hill Tensta-Rinkeby lie on. I'd prefer that one, but since it's a low-income area I don't doubt the locals push for anything like Södra/Norra Länkarnas tunnels won't come to pass.
I'd also like to see the figures for the new combined E4/E18 stretch Kista-JärvaKrog. should be swamped all day.

The plans have been comming and going for this since the 70s (like you said). the reason for the current opposition is that there is a (more expensive) alternative that's getting support from many locals (and (v) and (mp)). That option is for a tunnel under the hill Tensta-Rinkeby lie on. I'd prefer that one, but since it's a low-income area I don't doubt the locals push for anything like Södra/Norra Länkarnas tunnels won't come to pass.
I'd also like to see the figures for the new combined E4/E18 stretch Kista-JärvaKrog. should be swamped all day.

Ah well, let´s expropiate the low-income areas, demolish the houses and pave the road for the new motorway :D

I really don´t understand why they want to put the road under ground. There are many examples where they´ve built a road and built a "ecological" over/underpass ( most often a 50-100 metres wide bridge or tunnel under the way) where it is easy for game and wildlife to pass the road. It would probably be much cheaper than building a long tunnel through a "preserved" area.

When I now looked on a map over Stockholm and its metro area, one thing that struck me was that the northern part ( north of Gamla stan/Slussen) has some of the worst, most congested roads in Sweden while the part of the city that is to the south has many excellent motorways and other fine routes that serves the traffic very well. The northern part of Stockholm may be the richest part and the most populated too but there are except E4 not many motorways and hard for traffic from E18 to get out on E4.

The current plans are for building the new motorway sections on the slope below Tensta-Rinkeby. So it'll take away some green areas (IMO the crappiest part of the green area, a part no'one ever uses - it's steep and right next to E18!).
I'm not really that much against the plan, just think they shouldn't steamroll over ppls opinions because it's a poor 'hood. Those wiiiide (pedestrian) overpasses and the improved noice reductions are the highpoints of the plan IMO.

The main reasons the North has a weirder motorways and such is the more complex geography (all the inlets and lakes) and the historically more powerful nimbys. Since the North had richer suburbs it also had more rich people with enough power to stop infratructure plans (subway & motorways).

/looking at E18 @ Rinkeby right now.

The new Svinesund bridge are beeing tested these days, with 8 heavy trucks, and some aparatus to measure their impact on the bridge. This to have a reference to similar tests in the future.

http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/iriks/article1040715.ece

What about väg 44? Uddevalla - väneryr 2 lane motorway completed in 2004 now construction of the extension has started Väneryr - båberg wich will connect Uddevalla to Trollätan. Completion unknown.

I drove past there a week ago and construction had come pretty far but still alot to do.
BTW nice thread! :D

Ah well, as I said, I can´t remember every project ;-). But, you´re right so ok, here it goes.

http://www.vv.se/filer/16262/vagforslag.jpg

The first bit of the road was given over to traffic last year as the map shows, but I didn´t know that the construction had started on the second part. According to Vägverket (the Swedish national highway agency) it should be completed in 2006/7.

http://www.vv.se/filer/16278/bild-grunnebo_400.jpg

Hello all. I was wondering if this thread is still active.?

It is now! :D

Well here is my first contribution about Stockholm bypass:

Hi guys,

I just found a map yesterday on Trafikverket site (http://www.trafikverket.se/Om-Trafikverket/Spraksida/English-Engelska/Road-construction-projects/E4-the-Stockholm-bypass/Route-of-Forbifart-Stockholm/) which is new to me, since so far i knew only for the Kungens Kurva - Häggvik part of planned Stockholm bypass, but connecting half-finished Norrortsleden and future Södertörnsleden makes bypass looks more decent with half a ring around the Stockholm.

And E18 will be connected to E4 avoiding the motorway gap.

http://www.trafikverket.se/PageFiles/27353/Regionen-med-FS.gif (http://www.trafikverket.se/PageFiles/27353/Stockholm%20with%20Forbifart%20Stockholm.jpg)
Click a map to enlarge.

Post all infrastructure and motorway projects that is from Stockholm in:

STOCKHOLM | Transport & Infrastructure (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1203067&page=5)

They are safer than classic 2 lane roads, they have better traffic flow, they are faster and they are optimal solution to achieve (pretty close to motorway) safety also on roads which have lower number of vehicles per day (AADT).

Post here news about 2+1 roads in Sweden.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1d/MMLNorr1.JPG/220px-MMLNorr1.JPG

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6b/2%2B1-vaeg.svg/220px-2%2B1-vaeg.svg.png

indeed. This thread should be used more for the motorways outside Stockholm & Skåne (now that they both have their own infra-threads.

When I was in Sweden last year, I saw for the first time these 2+1 lanes. A bit strange as we don't have anything like that in Holland as far as I know. But I like it to be honest. :)

2+1 roads are a great compromise when safety is needed but there is not enough traffic for a motorway.

They were strange to me too since I saw them first time in Sweden but I can only wish other countries would do them.

Sweden was in advantage though since a lot 13 meters wide 2 lane roads were converted to 2+1 lanes.

Actually you in Netherlands have 1+1 (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=47.885545,75.673828&ie=UTF8&ll=52.679934,5.788164&spn=0.009015,0.018475&t=k&z=16&layer=c&cbll=52.676208,5.785887&panoid=Nnaxi7G9AwltnC3cv8JJ-g&cbp=12,344.17,,0,23.19). :)

Pssst... ;)
http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorvägsprojekt_i_Sverige

They are safer than classic 2 lane roads, they have better traffic flow, they are faster and they are optimal solution to achieve (pretty close to motorway) safety also on roads which have lower number of vehicles per day (AADT).

Post here news about 2+1 roads in Sweden.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1d/MMLNorr1.JPG/220px-MMLNorr1.JPG

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6b/2%2B1-vaeg.svg/220px-2%2B1-vaeg.svg.png

Are you sure about that 2+1 roads are safer? I've heard that they are faster but unsafer than 1+1.

When I was in Sweden last year, I saw for the first time these 2+1 lanes. A bit strange as we don't have anything like that in Holland as far as I know. But I like it to be honest. :)

The Dutch N50 Kampen - Zwolle is 2+1 with barrier.

Are you sure about that 2+1 roads are safer? I've heard that they are faster but unsafer than 1+1.

They reduce dangerous passing, as safe passing possibilities are frequently offered. With a (cable) barrier, dangerous passing can be banned all together. Which means a 2+1 road, given there are no at-grade intersections, approach the safety of a motorway. A small downside is the lack of shoulders for breakdowns or a flat tire.

2+1 roads, however, do not increase capacity, as the single lane sections are still representative for traffic flow. So I wouldn't recommend to use 2+1 over 20.000 vehicles per day. A fyrfältsväg would be better in situations with more than 20.000 vehicles per day (maybe already over 15.000 vpd)

Well are there any active projects in Sweden outside of Stockholm?

Well are there any active projects in Sweden outside of Stockholm?

On the top of my head, Hummelsta bypass, Enånger bypass and some stretch on E6 I guess.

Just check the international tread, like 2 weeks ago :)

Well are there any active projects in Sweden outside of Stockholm?

Partihallslänken is under construction in Gothenburg, soon Marieholmstunneln will start construction. Between Gothenburg and Trollhättan E45 is currently being built.

^^Is Marieholmstunneln all cleared with money and such, I knew that the other link was U/C, but is really Marie also OK?

^^Is Marieholmstunneln all cleared with money and such, I knew that the other link was U/C, but is really Marie also OK?

Every legal aspect is clear, only question is when construction will start, all depending on if the government will help finance it. Either way I hope we get the congestion tax asap.

Congestion tax will not generate that much money for road projects (not billions per year), and most of it will probably be siphoned off to public transport projects. What you'll end up with is a general annoyance for motorists.

Congestion tax will not generate that much money for road projects (not billions per year), and most of it will probably be siphoned off to public transport projects. What you'll end up with is a general annoyance for motorists.

Yea exactly. :naughty:

Except in Stockholm. Here they're planning on using the next 50+ years of congestion taxes (as security for the loans taken) to build an insanely expensive "bypass" (main effect: more car-dependent suburbia to the west and MORE traffic).

Yea exactly. :naughty:

Well, if your wet dream is to make the life of motorists as miserable as possible, the congestion charge is the right way for you.

Except in Stockholm. Here they're planning on using the next 50+ years of congestion taxes (as security for the loans taken) to build an insanely expensive "bypass" (main effect: more car-dependent suburbia to the west and MORE traffic).

Where, in Lake Mälaren? :)

Förbifart Stockholm will only have 2 non-motorway interchanges, so I guess the additional traffic will be somewhat overrated. Where there's population growth, there's traffic growth (bot transit and roads). It's better to develop new neighborhoods on good infrastructure, rather than on existing saturated infrastructure. Otherwise it's like reducing hospital beds as a solution to reduce the number of sick people...

Well, if your wet dream is to make the life of motorists as miserable as possible, the congestion charge is the right way for you.
You're right, reducing one of Europe's highest share of motorists and promoting public transport (and indirectly - denser living) is no way of developing a sustainable city. :ohno:

Well, if your wet dream is to make the life of motorists as miserable as possible, the congestion charge is the right way for you.

My work involves driving a car in the city all day long, I'll gladly pay the max tax each day if that means 15% less cars on the roads. And Gothenburg's public transportation is in desperate need of expansion, the congestion tax will finance the transit train tunnel under the city, and several other projects including a new road tunnel.

Umeåprojektet

http://www2.vk.se/imgconverter/get_image.php?width=468&image=http://site.vk.se/uploaded/image/2009/2/2/vagpaketgrafikny.jpg

Umeå ringroad under construction. Everything but "Västra länken" will be done late 2012. There are two alternatives for the western part of the ringroad, which has yet to be decided.

Norra länken will mainly be 2+1 (14m) with a short stretch of 2+2 (16,5m)

Östra länken will mainly be 2+2, with shorter stretches of 2+1

Västra länken will be 2+1

Most intersections will be two lane roundabouts.

Trafikverket has more info (in swedish) http://www.trafikverket.se/Privat/Projekt/Vasterbotten/Umeaprojektet/

Thanks for the update.

I just want to add that Östra länken already exists as 2 lane road and will I guess be upgraded to (as you say most of) 2+2 lanes.

Thanks for the update.

I just want to add that Östra länken already exists as 2 lane road and will I guess be upgraded to (as you say most of) 2+2 lanes.

That's correct. I actually live pretty close to the existing road. Construction of that stretch has already begun :cheers:. It will also be signed as E4.

Nice, as a matter of fact I wondered why traffic is routed trough the city if it could go there.

E12 Kulla - Norrfors

http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/8057/kartar.jpg

This stretch of road (7,5km) will be widened from 9m to 14m 2+1 with barrier. Construction is set to start in 2012. Unlike the stretch just west, Norrfors - Brattby (completed in 2004) this stretch won't be grade separated. Current AADT varies between 5000 and 7000. Another alignment north of the current road with a tunnel was discussed, but in the end they settled for the cheaper alternative (widening of the existing road).

A scene of the current road from google maps

http://img683.imageshack.us/img683/657/idagg.jpg

Thanks for the news metasmurf.