norwegian rock construction
Norway is a mountainous country with 4.5 mill. inhabitants. Located between 58o and 71o north, it has an area of 324 000 km². Rock construction has played an important role in this country over more than 100 years; first for hydropower development, then for transport and water supply, and later for oil development.
Over the years, more than 5000km of tunnels have been excavated, probably a world record compared with the country’s size and population.
The frequent use of the underground for various purposes has generated some Norwegian specialties in rock constructions, such as
= unlined pressure shafts and pressure tunnels (for hydropower)
= air cushion surge chambers in rock (for hydropower)
= lake taps by piercing the lake bottom with the tunnel (for utilizing a larger volume in the reservoir lake for hydropower)
= sub-sea tunnels (i.e., tunnels passing beneath lake or sea bottom)
= storage caverns in rock
Some information on these items and on Norwegian rock construction activities can be found in:
- A list of road tunnels in Norway (see also http://home.no net/lotsberg )
- A list of some underground hydropower stations and unlined surge chambers
- A paper on subsea tunnels and lake taps
- Some slides in Norwegian tunnels
- Information on Air curhion surge chambers
- Information on Norwegian unlined pressure tunnels and shafts
- A list of some Norwegian unlined pressure tunnels and shafts
- World record in drill and blast (D&B) tunnel excavation progress in 2008 at Sauda Hydropower plant
- Another, new world record in D&B tunnelling progress in 2009 at Kjosnefjorden Hydropower plant
