The Festning and the Bjørvika Tunnel are two motorway tunnels on the E18 in the city center of Oslo, Norway. Both tunnels have been equipped with an intelligent detection system to guarantee high-level road user safety 24/7.

The Festning tunnel, 1800 meters long, was opened in 1990 and has two tubes with each three lanes. This tunnel removes traffic from Radhusplassen, the square in front of the Oslo City Hall, and improves the access from the city to the waterfront.

The Bjørvika tunnel, directly connected to the Festning tunnel, removes on its turn substantial traffic volumes from the Oslo harbor area. The main goals of this prestigious project along the Oslo fjord are to achieve less dust, less noise, a cleaner port and safer traffic - due to the installation of the most recent surveillance and safety systems. As 7 of 10 vehicles in the Bjørvika area are transferred to the underground route, this previously heavily trafficked area can now be released to residential, commercial and public development.

This tunnel, with two 3-lane tunnel tubes, is 1100 meters long, of which 675 meters immersed: the various elements are to be constructed on land, floated into position and finally lowered onto the seabed - a unique construction procedure in Norway. 

The Bjørvika tunnel has been completed in 2010 and links the Festning tunnel in the west with Ekeberg tunnel in the east for an unbroken total length of 6 kilometers.

Automatic Incident Detection (AID)

Effective incident management inside tunnels has proven to save lives. Fast incident detection and fast incident verification can reduce the consequences of accidents and prevent secondary accidents. The City of Oslo has therefore installed video detection technology to monitor the traffic inside the Bjørvika and Festning tunnel. Incidents like smoke, pedestrians, fallen objects… are detected within seconds and transmitted to the traffic control centre who can immediately take the right actions to clear the incident.

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