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European route E6

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E6 shield
E6
Major junctions
North endKirkenes, Norway
South endTrelleborg, Sweden
Location
Countries Norway
 Sweden
Highway system

European route E6 (Norwegian: Europavei 6, Swedish: Europaväg 6, or simply E6) is the main north–south thoroughfare through Norway as well as the west coast of Sweden. It is 3,056 km (1,899 mi) long and runs from the southern tip of Sweden at Trelleborg, into Norway and through almost all of the country north to the Arctic Circle and Nordkapp.[1] The route ends in Kirkenes close to the Russian border.

Route

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The Svinesund Bridge crosses the border between Norway and Sweden
The West Coast Motorway E6/E20 in Gothenburg, coming from Malmö. At the junction Olskroksmotet, from where the E20 continues east towards Stockholm and E6 continues north towards Oslo.

From south to north, the E6 runs through Trelleborg, Malmö, Helsingborg, Halmstad, Gothenburg, Svinesund in Sweden, before crossing the border at the Svinesund Bridge into Norway. It then passes Halden, Sarpsborg, Moss, Vestby to the capital Oslo. North of this, it passes by Gardermoen, Hamar, Lillehammer, Dombås, Oppdal, Melhus to Trondheim.

Beyond Trondheim, the E6 meets Stjørdalshalsen, Verdalsøra, Steinkjer, Grong, Mosjøen, Mo i Rana, then over the Saltfjellet mountains. It then passes through Rognan, Fauske, and Hamarøy towards Bognes, where there is a ferry crossing over the Tysfjorden to Skarberget. It then runs through on via Narvik, Setermoen, Nordkjosbotn, Skibotn, and Alta to Olderfjord, where European route E69 continues north towards Nordkapp. The E6, meanwhile, turns south towards Lakselv and Karasjok, then runs on the west bank of the Anarjohka, which forms the border with Finland. Beyond the border, it passes through Varangerbotn, and Kirkenes, where the road terminates just east of the town center.

Between Trelleborg and Kirkenes, there is a more than 800 km (500 mi) shorter route using E4 and E75, among the longest detour any European route has. In Finnmark there are several shorter alternative routes to the E6. Moreover, on the stretch from Oslo to Trondheim, following E6 strictly is a 40-kilometre (25 mi) detour compared to using Norwegian National Road 3 or Norwegian National Road 4 for their applicable portions of the trip.

Features

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The E6 south of Narvik

The road is a 2+2 lane motorway from outside Trelleborg to Moelv, about 740 kilometres (460 mi). The last Swedish part of the E6 motorway through Bohuslän was completed in 2015.[2][3] This motorway is also connected to Central Europe by uninterrupted motorway (via E20). Some stretches further north also have four lanes or motorway standard. The rest of the road is usually 6–10-metre (20–33 ft) wide ordinary road. Some parts in the north of Norway are less than 6 m (20 ft) wide, making it very tight when heavy vehicles meet. The northern half of the road, north of Trondheim, is also often fairly curvy, making high speeds a possible safety hazard.

E6 passes over treeless mountain passes in a few places in Norway. In the winter, bad weather and snow storms can cause the road to be temporarily closed, though, unlike many minor roads, it is kept open wherever practical.[4] Because the road is the main artery through the country, cyclists and leisure travellers avoid the southern sections owing to the excessive traffic. In the north, traffic is sparse.[5]

Electronic road tolls in Norway

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Electronic tolling station inside Oslo. Congestion charging may be applied.

Travellers driving from Svinesund, at the border between Norway and Sweden, to the other end of E6 in Kirkenes, will pass around 32 electronic toll stations on the Norwegian stretch of E6 between Svinesund and Bjerkvik. [6] Without prior registration, the cost of a straight trip from Svinesund to Kirkenes, with a petrol or diesel car weighing less than 3500 kilos, remaining only on E6, was NOK 1072 (about €90,45) with rush hour fares included, by the end of October 2024. The last electronic toll station would be Hålogaland Bridge, between Narvik and Bjerkvik. The number of tolls to pass and pay for will however increase as soon as one drives off the E6, into cities with toll rings, either for sleeping in a hotel, or for sightseeing. The number of toll stations one encounters on E6 can decrease when road projects have been paid for and toll stations are abandoned. The number of toll stations can also go up in the future, if new roads need to be financed. As of October 2024 there are no electronic road tolls on E6 in Finnmark.

Reinforshei on Saltfjellet in 2007. In 2024 it costs 18 Kroner [7] to drive a car without toll badge on this stretch of E6, far from any motorway

The Norwegian system of electronic tolls is based on the assumption that every road user has a credit card and a smartphone to register their vehicle at www.Autopass.no, a website owned by the Norwegian national road administration. There is no place or way to pay for your tolls with cash money.[8] If the tolls aren't paid by registering the vehicle online, a bill with a higher price will be sent to the vehicle owner's address. It is also not possible to evade toll sections by taking smaller parallel roads. Quite a lot of foreign visitors to Norway do not understand how roads that are not motorways can even be toll roads.[9] Others are complaining that the Norwegian road toll system works like a trap, because the amount of road toll in cities like Oslo and Trondheim tends to depend on multiple factors, like time of travelling and emission category of the vehicle, making it impossible to predict the exact price of a road trip from the Swedish border at Svinesund till Nordkapp (North Cape). Most toll calculation apps, tools, or websites will not allow you to set out a road trip that keeps you driving on E6 all along the way.

Invoice for electronic road tolling from 2011.

Electric cars have large discounts on tolls, but it can be fairly hard to obtain this discount with a foreign electric car. Scammers have been reported to jump on the bandwagon, by sending fake toll bills, to obtain credit card information.[10] Increasing road tolls were also the reason for a large protest in several cities in Norway in 2018 and 2019.[11] Norwegian authorities refuse to comment on the number of fines for unpaid tolls that they cannot collect. Public broadcaster NRK investigated and has written a long news article, in which they estimate that Norway has missed out on about 90 million Kroner (about 7,58 million Euros) between May 2021 and December 2023, because tourists have not paid their electronic road tolls. [12] Norway cannot force drivers with foreign registered cars to pay, as long as Liechtenstein has not ratified EETS (European Electronic Toll Service), a European regulation on tolls. NRK spoke with angry locals who were contemplating on closing roads popular with tourists. NRK also spoke with Germans who had not registered their camper van, because they were told that they would get a letter with a payment request sent home into their mailbox. Norway was trying to strike deals on enforcing payment of road tolls with individual countries, to compensate for the missing EETS regulation.

History and future plans

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This road was called E6 in the old "E" road system before 1975 and previously it continued to Rome (introduced in Sweden 1962 and in Norway 1965). However before 1969 E6 went only to Stjørdal near Trondheim and 1969 – 1983 to Nordkjosbotn near Tromsø. The road was considered in too bad condition to be E-routes further north until it got upgraded. Parts were gravel roads. The non-E-route sections were called national route 6 from 1965.

Nordlandsporten at Namsskogan, built in 1991, to welcome travellers on E6 in northern Norway.

The northern part of E6 was first opened in 1924, when the Innlandsvegen (Inland road, in English) between Grong and Mosjøen was opened to traffic. An engineer responsible for building the Innlandsvegen wrote in his daily report of the 3rd of February 1916 that he expected little traffic on the new road. A news report published by NRK shows that the opening ceremony picture, taken on the 6th of August 1924, was recreated 100 years later, after the opening of two new sections of road, between Fjerdingen and Grøndalselv and between the Trøndelag district border and the lake Lille Majavatn, with a similar picture taken on the 18th of October 2024. [13] The speed limit on these 2 new straightened parts of E6 has been raised from 80 to 90 kilometers per hour (56 miles per hour). E6 was numbered RV50 between Oslo and Kirkenes in 1931, to tie the north and south of Norway more closely together, even though many road sections were still missing links. In 1991 a gate was built at the county border at Namsskogan, Nordlandsporten, to welcome travellers on E6 into northern Norway. The Norwegian Public Roads Administration, Statens Vegvesen, started the Helgelands project in 2009, a project to modernise E6 and make the road wider and safer between the county border and Saltfjellet. This project is expected to be ready by the end of 2025.

The E6 road was given the number E47 (but not signposted) in the new system on most of the Scandinavian part (Helsingborg–Olderfjord), and E6 only for the northernmost 460 km (290 mi) (from Olderfjord in Finnmark). After a political negotiation, the whole part passing through Scandinavia was given the number E6 in the new system, introduced in Scandinavia in 1992. The part Trelleborg-Helsingborg was never intended to be part of E47. E47 connects to E4 at the Helsingør-Helsingborg ferry, and E4 and E6 connect just outside Helsingborg.

The E6 became a 4-lane motorway all the way from Trelleborg to Kolomoen (near Hamar) in 2015,[2] although the road is sometimes wider. The new Svinesund Bridge opened in 2005, replacing an earlier and narrower bridge from 1946.[14] The oldest 4-lane motorway along E6 is Gothenburg-Kungälv from 1958, meaning the motorway construction through Sweden took 57 years.

Between 2012 and 2018, the road was shortened by 39 kilometres (24 mi) between Narvik and Alta, by building the Hålogaland Bridge and more bridges and tunnels.

The 60-kilometre (37 mi) road between Moelv and Øyer is under conversion to a 4-lane motorway, partly set to be finished around 2025,[15] partly (including a new Mjøsa Bridge) postponed to a later year of around or after 2030.

In Trøndelag, several sections north and south of Trondheim are under construction, or planned as motorways. This project is planned to be 106 kilometres (66 mi) long and it will go from the junction with Norwegian National Road 3 at Ulsberg in the south to Åsen north of Trondheim Airport, Værnes, set to be finished in 2027/2028. It will be financed by the state owned company Nye Veier.[16]

Interruption due to snowstorms, landslides and floodings

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Apart from being the most important road between Oslo and Göteborg, E6 is functioning like Norway's backbone, but this road is rather vulnerable to flooding, landslides, rockfalls, snow storms and even train wrecks on the parallel railroad. Whenever E6 is closed (stengt in Norwegian) due to any such aforementioned incident, Norwegian journalists often write that Norway is cut into two pieces (Norge er delt i to), as E6 is the only continuous road in many isolated areas of Norway.

Interruption due to snow storms

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Some mountain passes along E6 in Norway are frequently closed due to snow storms in winter. These passes are:

  • E6 over Saltfjellet in Nordland was closed 76 times in the winter of 2019–2020, while the average is 32 times per winter. There are no good alternative routes around this mountain road. One possibility is the coastal road with two ferries, another possibility is through Sweden (250 km longer), both the ferry and the Swedish road might be closed in storms.[17]
  • Sennalandet in Finnmark was closed 48 times in the 2019–2020 season, the record is in the 2016–2017 season, when Sennalandet had 55 closures.[18]
  • Kvænangsfjellet in Troms was closed 77 times in the winter of 2019–2020.[18] It has been closed on average 32 times per winter due to storms. A tunnel was built under the worst part of the pass in 2024, so now this route is much more reliable.
  • Dovrefjell in south Norway has the highest point along E6, 1026 meters, but it is not often closed.

Munkedal landslide

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On 20 December 20, 2006, a large landslide occurred just south of Munkedal in connection with the construction of a motorway at the site which also affected the old road. About 15 cars and a truck were involved, but no one was seriously injured. There were no good alternative routes past the site, so only narrow roads, different per direction, with long detours, were signposted as alternatives. A small road via Skredsvik, not mentioned in recommendations, were used by most local residents and also bus traffic. The Bohusbanan railway was also destroyed in the landslide. The road was reopened on 15 February 2007 and the railway later.

Badderen bridge washed away

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On the 31st of May 2022, a fairly short river bridge near Badderen was on the brink of collapse due to an unstable support column that was about to be washed away, as a result of erosion. Traffic on E6 between Tromsø and Alta had to make a 163-kilometre (101 mi) longer journey to reach their destination. [19] Inhabitants of Badderen were confronted with a 688-kilometre (428 mi) detour, through Finland and Sweden, if they wished to drive their car from one river bank to the other side of the river. [20] After traffic had been interrupted for more than a week, a temporary bridge was installed over the damaged bridge and E6 was reopened for traffic on the 8th of June 2022. [21] [22][23]

A final report about the causes of the collapse of Badderen bridge was published in December 2022. Stetens Vegvesen admitted that they could have done better in inspecting bridges with support columns in the middle of the river for erosion. [24] On the 30th of January 2023, Statens Vegvesen announced that they would set up another temporary bridge a little upstream, where the old E6 once used to be, [25] so the damaged bridge could be dismantled, before melting snow would cause new high water levels in the river. [26] A design for the new Badderen bridge was published for public hearings in September 2024. [27] It is expected that a new permanent bridge over Badderelva (elva means river) will not open before 2025.

Quick clay landslide at Stenungsund junction

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Main article: 2023 Stenungsund landslide

On 23 September 2023, a large landslide destroyed a section of about 700 metres (2,300 ft) of the highway, near Stenungsund, north of Gothenburg.[28] The landslide also destroyed a local road, a fuel station, a fast food restaurant and a hardware store. Parked trucks got trapped in crevasses around the fuel station.[29] The pre-1990 E6 through Ucklum was used while the motorway was closed. Shortly before King Carl XVI Gustaf arrived to cut the ribbon, on the 3rd of July 2024, and declare the route reopened, a truckload of rotting salmon was cleared away from the site of the landslide.[30] E6 motorway was finally reopened to traffic on the 5th of July 2024, several months ahead of the previous schedule, that was aiming for December 2024. [31]

Train wreck on E6 near Finneidfjord

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Main article: Nordland_Line § Accidents

On the 24th of October 2024 a train on the Nordlandsbanen railway line crashed into a rock that had fallen on the tracks. [32] [33] The train derailed, sliding down an embankment, towards the road below, which is the E6. The train driver got killed in this accident. [34] Four passengers had to go to hospital. The rest of just under 50 passengers escaped with minor bruises and were evacuated by bus. The locomotive's front end, some trees and smaller rocks ended up on the northbound lane of the E6, between Bjerka and Finneidfjord. Police have closed both Nordland Line and E6 until further notice, [35] to investigate the cause of the accident, evaluate risks of further rockslides and organize a towing operation for the derailed train cars. There were also some fears that the locomotive and one or more train cars could slide further down the embankment, so it was deemed unsafe to reopen the E6.


Once again, Norway's main road is closed and Norway is cut in two. One detour, using FV17, involves a ferry ship crossing between Levang and Nesna, where waiting times are getting longer, as the ferry ship does not have enough capacity to absorb the volume of traffic that would normally drive on E6. [36] The other option for a detour runs along FV73 and European route E12, through Sweden. Both detours cost lots of extra fuel and driving time. Bane NOR announced on Sunday the 27th of October 2024 that they had to interrupt their attempts to clear the train wreck, because the mountain slope was still moving. [37] An earlier announcement about reopening E6 turned out to be too optimistic, [38] when Statens Vegvesen announced on the 28th of October 2024 that E6 would remain closed until at least Friday the 1st of November 2024, with a new evaluation of the situation scheduled for Thursday the 31th of October 2024. [39] Statens Vegvesen strongly urges all through traffic to take the detour through Sweden. Customs authorities have set up temporary exceptions of customs rules for truck traffic making a Norway-Sweden-Norway transit. Bad weather, which triggered red alerts south of Trondheim, [40] has interrupted the ferry service between Nesna and Levang, aggravated the landslide risk and delayed the removal of the crashed locomotive at Finneidfjord.

References

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  1. ^ "Top 10 Drivers' Drives". National Geographic. Archived from the original on September 20, 2010. Retrieved 3 August 2016.
  2. ^ a b "Motorväg genom hela Bohuslän" (Press release) (in Swedish). Swedish Transport Administration. 6 July 2015. Retrieved 6 November 2017.
  3. ^ Kind, Hanne Stine; Eide, Stein S. (25 June 2015). "Sju års E6-ventetid er over". NRK (in Norwegian). Retrieved 5 November 2017.
  4. ^ Lonely Planet : Norway. Lonely Planet. 2011. p. 415. ISBN 978-1-742-20472-7.
  5. ^ "Norway". International Cyclist. Retrieved 3 August 2016.
  6. ^ Bompengekalkulator in Norwegian In English:toll money calculator Retrieved 27th of October 2024. You need to use 'via', or else this website will send you on a shorter and cheaper itinerary through Sweden. Try typing in: from Skee, Sweden, via Oslo, Norway, via Lillehammer, Norway, via Finneidfjord, Norway, to Bjerkvik, Norway. Always check the map! Also pay attention to the price difference with or without Autopass and rush hour or not
  7. ^ Google Streetview electronic toll station on E6 over Saltfjellet, retrieved 29th of October 2024
  8. ^ How to pay toll in Norway Ferde, retrieved 3rd of July 2024
  9. ^ Road toll system baffles visitors News in English, published 16th of July 2012, retrieved 3rd of July 2024
  10. ^ The Toll Road Scam: Unmasking a Growing Threat Johnathon Horner, on LinkedIn, published 21st of April 2024, retrieved 3rd of July 2024
  11. ^ Road toll uproar rolled into Oslo News in English, published 6th of September 2018, retrieved 3rd of July 2024
  12. ^ Turister betaler ikke bompenger - Norge går glipp av millioner in English: Tourists don't pay tolls - Norway missing out on millions NRK, published in Norwegian 19th of May 2024, retrieved 28th of October 2024
  13. ^ Den strakeste veien er 100 år. Feiret med nye 90-soner Straightest road in 100 years, celebrated with 2 new 90 km/h-zones, NRK, published 19th of October 2024, in Norwegian, retrieved 27th of October 2024
  14. ^ Strait Crossings 2001. CRC Press. 2001. p. 173. ISBN 978-9-026-51845-4.
  15. ^ E6 Storhove – Øyer
  16. ^ "Nye Veier AS". Nye Veier. Retrieved 18 October 2020.
  17. ^ "Disse sjåførene har ventet i 24 timer for å få krysse Saltfjellet: – Vi begynner å bli mektig lei" (in Norwegian). NRK. 2020-04-14. Retrieved 2024-10-29.
  18. ^ a b "Rekordmange stengte veger i Nord-Norge i vinter" (in Norwegian). NRK. 2020-04-03. Retrieved 2024-10-29.
  19. ^ Wilhelms, Hanne (2022-05-31). "E6 stengt i Nord-Troms – omkjøring via Finland". NRK (in Norwegian Bokmål). Retrieved 2024-01-11.
  20. ^ "Det er mer enn ei bru i Nord-Norge som har gitt etter. Det er tilliten som smuldrer opp". Nettavisen (in Norwegian). 2022-05-31. Retrieved 2024-01-11.
  21. ^ "Badderen bru åpnet for trafikk". NRK (in Norwegian Bokmål). 2022-06-08. Retrieved 2024-01-11.
  22. ^ Andreassen, Rune N. (2022-06-05). "Midlertidig bru snart klar: Gjenåpner E6 i Nord-Troms allerede onsdag". NRK (in Norwegian Bokmål). Retrieved 2024-03-23.
  23. ^ "Midlertidig bru settes inn over Badderen på E6 i Nord-Troms". Nettavisen (in Norwegian). 2022-06-01. Retrieved 2024-01-11.
  24. ^ Frykter økende erosjon: Styrker overvåkingen av riksveibruer Teknisk Ukeblad, published 20th of December 2022, in Norwegian, retrieved 29 th of October 2024
  25. ^ Brua falt i elva Bridge has fallen into river (this refers to older, abandoned bridge from 1936) Anlegg&Transport, published 11th of October 2021, in Norwegian, retrieved 29th of October 2024
  26. ^ E6 i Badderen får ny midlertidig bru Statens Vegvesen, published 30th of January 2023, in Norwegian, retrieved 28th of October 2024
  27. ^ Høring og offentlig ettersyn av detaljregulering for E6 Badderen bru, nybygg Statens Vegvesen, published 23rd of September 2024, in Norwegian, retrieved 29th of October 2024
  28. ^ Nikel, David (2023-09-23). "Landslide Destroys Main E6 Sweden-Norway Highway". Life in Norway. Retrieved 2023-09-23.
  29. ^ "A landslide in Sweden causes a huge sinkhole on a highway and 3 are injured when cars crash". AP News. 2023-09-23. Retrieved 2023-09-23.
  30. ^ Toxic Cleanup Chaos Before King's Visit Sweden Today, Swedish news in English, retrieved 4th of July 2024
  31. ^ E6 Highway to Reopen Early After Landslide Sweden Today, Swedish news in English, publishing date unknown, retrieved 3rd of July 2024
  32. ^ "Train carrying 55 people derails on Norway's north coast, killing at least 1 person and injuring 4". MyStateline. Retrieved 25 October 2024.
  33. ^ Tog spora av på Nordlandsbanen train derailed on the Northlands railway line, NRK, in Norwegian, published 24th of October 2024, retrieved 25th of October 2024
  34. ^ Locomotive engineer killed in train derailment News in English, published 24th of October 2024, retrieved 25th of October 2024
  35. ^ Togavsporingen på Nordlandsbanen Train derailment on Northlands railway line VG Nyheter, liveblog in Norwegian, with images and links to detailed news articles about this train accident, retrieved 25th of October 2024
  36. ^ Levang-Nesna, Rute 18-335 Torghatten fery ship operator, published 30th of October 2024, in Norwegian, retrieved 30th of October 2024
  37. ^ Oppdatering om Nordlandsbanen Bane NOR, published 27th of October 2024 in Norwegian, retrieved 27th of October 2024
  38. ^ E6 i Hemnes åpnes tidligst tirsdag – gjennomfartstrafikk nord-sør oppfordres sterkt til å kjøre via Sverige Statens Vegvesen, published 26th of October 2024, in Norwegian, retrieved 27th of October 2024
  39. ^ Ustabilt fjell på oversiden av toglinjen: E6 Hemnes åpner tidligst fredag Unstable mountain slope hanging over train line: E6 will open on Friday at earliest, Statens Vegvesen, published 28th of October 2024, in Norwegian, retrieved 28th of October 2024
  40. ^ Ekstremværet Jakob - Flom- og jordskredfare på oransje og rødt nivå in Norwegian, retrieved 30th of October 2024
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