Douglas Todd: How Norway’s amazing road tunnels get built, compared to B.C.

Norway, a land with more than 1,200 different road tunnels, has a world reputation for getting its projects done much faster, and at lower cost, than other jurisdictions — and that includes British Columbia.

Norway is a country of mountains, evergreen trees and ocean inlets, much like the west coast of Canada. The populations of B.C. and Norway are identical, at 5.6 million each.

Unlike in B.C., however, Norway’s politicians have long been committed to building tunnels to connect people and places. The country now has more than 1,500 kilometres of road tunnels.

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Its Laerdal tunnel, completed in 2000, is the longest road tunnel in the world. It stretches for more than 24 kilometres, significantly longer than the straight-line distance from downtown Vancouver to New Westminster.

Construction is about to begin on an even longer Norwegian tunnel, the Rogfast. At 27 kilometres, it will be the longest and (at 392 metres below sea level) deepest sub-ocean tunnel on Earth, slashing 11 hours off coastal drive times. It is scheduled to be completed in 2033 and cost $3.7 billion (Canadian dollars), mostly paid for through tolls.

That is in sharp contrast to B.C.’s Fraser River tunnel project, which is to replace the aging, clogged George Massey Tunnel that connects Richmond to Delta, feeds the Tsawwassen ferry terminal to Victoria, and serves the busy Roberts Bank superport.

Compared to many efforts in Norway, the Fraser River tunnel project will be a relatively modest affair — eight lanes, situated about 15 metres below sea level, and running less than one kilometre in length.

The B.C. government says the project is scheduled for completion in 2031 and, after many delays and rising costs, now vows that its price tag will be $8.5 billion.

Frustrated and angry drivers are tired of waiting. The Canadian Automobile Association says the current four-lane Massey Tunnel creates one of the worst traffic bottlenecks in the country. Then-premier Christy Clark first promised to replace it 13 years ago.

This summer, B.C.’s Minister of Transportation Mike Farnworth blamed the Fraser River crossing project’s ever-escalating cost estimates on “inflation, project scope, today’s market conditions, and the realities of delivering a project of this size and complexity.”

But one of many questions is why a short Metro Vancouver road tunnel is taking so much time and money to get seriously underway — in contrast to the tunnel-making efficiency of Norway and many other countries.

The 60-year-old Norwegian Tunnelling Society, which represents about 1,100 professional and corporate members, says the country’s good reputation flows from hard-fought experience and know-how.