New report: sky high cost for bridge between Sweden and Finland

One year ago, the Finnish government announced that the Swedish Transport Agency would investigate a « fixed connection » between Umeå and Vaasa. In the vernacular it is usually called Kvarkenbron. The Swedish Transport Administration has now presented the investigation.

« The investigation has been unique to me, there was no finished model to start from for the work, » says Aimo Huhdanmäki, project manager for the preparation at the Swedish Transport Administration, in a press release.

According to the report from The investigation is a fixed connection between the countries fully possible to build. And a forecast shows that the traffic requirement of it would be « moderate. » It is estimated that about 2,000 to 3,000 passenger cars and 500 to 600 trucks would pass over the « bridge » between Umeå and Vaasa every day. By comparison, close to approximately 18,000 passenger cars and about 1,800 trucks across the Öresund Bridge each day.

However, if the ports in southern Finland are suspended during, for example, crisis or war, the investigation sees that the need for a fixed connection would increase.

For the region, a fixed connection provides several benefits, according to the investigation. For example, travel time between countries would decrease by several hours. DN has previously met Johanna Holmäng from Pedersöre as commutes over Kvarken to work at university hospital in Umeå.

According to the investigation, the connection would also make it possible to transfer energy and facilitate military mobility. Michael Malm at the Swedish Armed Forces has previously told DN that the issue of a fixed connection to Finland is not run by the defense. He has also highlighted that bridges can be difficult to defend which can create vulnerability. An attitude that is firm.

« We have nothing new to say about this, what Malm said a year ago still applies, » writes Marie Tisäter, communicator at the Armed Forces in an email.

The cheapest option would be to build a bridge for car traffic. However, it would have a major impact on the environment. Kvarken has a nature conservation area and is appointed one of UNESCO’s world heritage areas and classified as a Natura 2000 area.

« Most of the protected areas could be circumvented in all investigated implementation alternatives, but about 1.5 kilometers of the project would go through the nature conservation area. In addition, carbon dioxide emissions from construction would be large, » the investigators write in the report.

Another negative aspect of a fixed connection is the impact on shipping. Rights are expected to shrink and bridges or road banks would affect sea currents and ice.

To reduce the impact on both the environment and shipping, investigators believe that a tunnel solution would be the best option. However, the investigators have not looked at how the construction could be financed. The cheapest solution is to build a country road over, then the price tag ends of SEK 50 to 85 billion. The most expensive is a railway tunnel that would also be a record long with a length of over 100 kilometers. The world’s longest railway tunnel is 59 kilometers long.

The Kvarken Council organization has applied for EU grants to investigate the financial consequences of the connection.

At present, there are no political decisions in any of the countries to build a fixed connection. The Swedish government has previously stated that there is no interest in building a bridge between the countries.

If political decisions were made to build a connection, it is expected, according to the investigators, to be completed sometime during the 2040s.