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There are many ways to explore the seven mountains that surround the picturesque UNESCO-listed city of Bergen on Norway’s fjord-studded west coast. The newest one, however, may just break records.
A three-kilometre-long cycle and pedestrian tunnel has been dug through the base of Løvstakken mountain and its designers claim it is the longest purpose-built tunnel of its kind.
The Fyllingsdalstunnelen, as it is known, opened on April 15 with a family day of sports activities, after four years of construction that began in February 2019. The state-funded mega-project cost nearly $29 million, or 300 million Norwegian kroner.
“We Norwegians are generally modest people,” Camilla Einarsen Heggernes, a spokeswoman for the railway company Bybanen Utbygging, told CNN, “but in this case we would say the tunnel is 100 percent state-of-the-art.”
It takes just under 10 minutes to cross the tunnel by bike and about 40 minutes on foot. To break up the monotony of this windowless tunnel, various art installations are installed throughout, as well as different colours and lighting to help users find their way and provide orientation.
At the center is a “sundial” – where the sun will never shine – that indicates the time of day, allowing visitors to orient themselves and break the long line of sight. The tunnel is otherwise perfectly straight, except for slight curves at the entrance and exit.
If you’re wondering how cyclists and pedestrians can use the same space, the tunnel has two lanes: a 3.5-metre-wide cycle path and a 2.5-metre-wide lane for pedestrians and runners. “We’ve laid a blue rubber surface over the entire tunnel, similar to an athletics track,” says Einarsen Heggernes. “This makes it more pleasant to use than just walking on asphalt.”
The new tunnel is the result of Bergen’s second Bybanen tram line, which opened in November 2022. The tram line through the mountain required a parallel escape tunnel, so the developers decided to make the new tunnel multi-purpose.
Bergen is Norway’s second largest city and the port city is connected to the Norwegian capital Oslo by the 496-kilometre Bergensbanen railway line. This magnificent rail journey crosses Europe’s largest high mountain plateau, the Hardangervidda, and its snowy landscapes provided the backdrop for battle scenes in the “Star Wars” sequel “The Empire Strikes Back”.
The Fyllingsdal Tunnel bills itself as the longest bike tunnel in the world, but the reason for the caveat is the 2.2-mile-long Snoqualmie Tunnel in Washington, just east of Seattle. This former railroad tunnel is now a passageway for cyclists, runners and walkers and is part of the 250-mile Palouse-Cascades State Park Trail.
Six European cities made CNN Travel’s recent ranking of the world’s 10 most bike-friendly cities. Copenhagen has 385 kilometers of bike paths, the first of which opened in 1892. Strasbourg, France, has about 6,000 bikes available at 24/7 self-service stations for tourists to use. And the Swiss capital, Bern, has an exhilarating downhill trail for cyclists with a need for speed. Best of all, cyclists can take a funicular to the top and then cycle back down, with no hassle.
