“Budget Cuts: 12 Road Construction Projects Removed from National Transport Plan in Norway and Sweden”

After several years of bån gas, there will be cuts in road construction. 12 projects are missing from the Swedish Road Administration’s plans.

How will traffic develop in the next few years? Where will new roads be built? When will the trains leave? This is what will be determined in the government’s new national transport plan (NTP)national transport plan (NTP)The National Transport Plan is the document that determines the political and economic direction within transport. Usually there is a new one every four years. .

In recent years, the construction and development of new roads has been hectic. Now the economy is hitting the brakes. And it presses hard.

At the end of March delivered the traffic authoritiesthe traffic authoritiesThe Norwegian Public Roads Administration, New Roads, Bane Nor, the Norwegian Railway Directorate, Avinor and the Coastal Administration. their priorities to the Ministry of Transport. It is the list of projects that they believe the state should prioritize giving money to. It is not necessarily clear what will be included in the finished plan.

The queue is already long, and with sky-high costs, several projects must be given the red light. This applies in particular to the Norwegian Public Roads Administration. They are removing a total of 12 projects across the country from their plans. Among them is Norway’s largest tunnel project for cars and railways.

See the full list of proposed cuts at the bottom of the article.

Planner for three different wallets

Communications manager Kjell Solem in the Norwegian Public Roads Administration gives the following description of reality to Aftenposten in an email:

– We see that there are many projects that have previously been included in NTP, which cannot be realized in the period 2025–2030, says Solem.

These are the first six years of the new NTP. The projects that are prioritized during this period are usually some of them.

For the next NTP, one plans for three possible financial realities: A wallet that is either 10 per cent bigger, 10 per cent smaller or the same as today. In any case, it is quite modest.

This has consequences for the priorities. One giant project in particular is conspicuous by its absence: the development of road and railway between Arna and Stanghelle along the Bergen Railway. Several long tunnels were to be built to secure the stretch against landslides in the so-called K5 project. There has been a great collaboration with Bane Nor.

The Swedish Road Administration itself says that maintenance and utility will trump major new projects in the coming years.

– We have looked at what is possible and realistic to get started, says Solem to Aftenposten.

Reality also hits hard on one of perhaps the most important investment areas in traffic.

Jokes for the climate goals

Traffic on land, water and in the air accounts for over a third of Norway’s total climate emissions.

– They must take their share of the emission reductions in order for Norway to fulfill its climate obligations, says Transport Minister Jon Ivar Nygård (Ap) to Aftenposten.

The final destination for the upcoming transport plan is to reduce emissions by 55 percent from the level they were at in 1990 by 2030. In short: Punctuality is a joke.

The calculations show that the reduction of emissions will not be close in 2030. Achieving these will cost and require much more than is planned today, according to a climate report from the companies.

– The goal is not less mobility, the goal is greener mobility that enables people to live all over Norway, says Nygård about the tough framework.

But is it green enough? Does it cut too much? Fasten your seat belts: The opposition is divided.

The politicians on either side of the road

MDG leader Arild Hermstad believes that the cut list from the Swedish Road Administration should have been longer to reduce emissions.

– The Minister of Transport must take another round and put in place a major investment in public transport, walking, cycling and scrap all motorways that eat up nature and increase emissions, he says.

From the Right, the criticism is the exact opposite. Your concern? That lack of investment in new road projects will come at the expense of goods transport and jobs throughout the country.

– This is too complicated if you want to connect Norway together, says transport policy spokesperson Trond Helleland (H).