NIB finances record undersea road tunnel in Norway

Photo: Norwegian Public Roads Administration

NIB has signed a EUR 120.5 million loan agreement with Ryfast AS to finance two undersea road tunnels in Norway, of which the 14.3 km Ryfylke tunnel will become the world’s longest.

The 25-year maturity loan will help finance a permanent road connection between Stavanger and Ryfylke in the southwest of Norway. The new road connection, between National road 13 and European route 39, will replace two ferry connections and reduce average travel time by 45 minutes.

At 14.3 km, the Ryfylke tunnel will be the longest undersea road tunnel in the world. The other Hundvåg tunnel will be 5.7 km long. Construction work started in the summer 2013 and the expected completion is at the end of 2018.

“Transportation infrastructure is essential to market efficiency and shorter travel time is likely to increase competition in the local markets of Ryfylke and Stavanger,” says Henrik Normann, President & CEO of NIB.

The population and the economy of the greater Stavanger area are growing rapidly. The benefits of shorter travel times might be expected to help reduce capacity constraints in the housing market in the long term. Quicker transportation is also likely to increase the depth of the local labour market, where low unemployment rates indicate that labour is in short supply.

The project is also in line with Norway’s National Transport Plan 2010—2019.

Ryfast AS is a special purpose company with the sole purpose of financing the construction costs of the Ryfast project by charging toll fees until the year 2039. The company is owned by Rogaland County (57%), Stavanger Municipality (29%) and Strand Municipality (14%).

NIB is an international financial institution owned by eight member countries: Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden. The Bank finances private and public projects in and outside the member countries. NIB has the highest possible credit rating, AAA/Aaa, with the leading rating agencies Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s.

For further information, please contact:
Mr Stefan Jon Fridriksson, Senior Manager, Origination, at +358 50 311 1050, mixIt(‘stefan’,’.jon.fridriksson’,’nib’,’.int’,”,’1523010003055-0′);stefan.jon.fridriksson (at) nib.int

Mr Arild Moen, Senior Communications Officer, at +358 10 618 0496, mixIt(‘arild.m’,’oen’,’nib.int’,”,”,’1523010003055-1′);arild.moen (at) nib.int