An island in the Faroes with a similar population to that of Barra will this week be connected to the rest of the archipelago by a road tunnel almost 11 kilometres long – which is costing far less than the two uncompleted ferries being built for CalMac Ferries on the Clyde since 2017.
For the people of Sandoy and the rest of the Faroes, an early Christmas festivity means the end of Sandoy’s relative isolation as on Thursday (December 21) the new Sandoy Tunnel (Sandoyartunnilin) will finally open to the public – and be toll-free for about three weeks.
The Sandoy Tunnel, the Faroes’ fourth subsea tunnel, is the longest to date at 10.8 kilometres or 6.7 miles. That is a similar distance to the gap between Eoligarry on the Isle of Barra and Eriskay.
The link between Sandoy and Streymoy comes 20 years after the opening of the Faroes’ first such road tunnel, the Vagar Tunnel (Vágatunnilin), which provided a fixed link between Streymoy and Vágar.
Two more subsea tunnels were added in 2006 and 2020, respectively—the Northern Tunnel (Norðoyatunnilin), between the islands Borðoy and Eysturoy, and the Eysturoy Tunnel (Eysturoyartunnilin) between Eysturoy and Streymoy.
The combined cost of building the Eysturoy and Sandoy Tunnels is estimated at €349 million or about £301m, according to the www.local.fo news website.
So far, the cost of building the MV Glen Sannox and the MV Glen Rosa, originally intended to come into service in 2018 and 2019 respectively and now expected to be around six years late coming into service, has more than trebled from the original contract price to £360 million, while the costs of rebuilding the ports at Uig, Tarbert and Lochmaddy to fit the ferries, which are no longer to serve those routes, totals more than £60m.
A new bus route through the tunnel will provide scheduled public transport between Sandoy and Tórshavn, the capital of the Faroes. On the day of the tunnel opening, the retiring ferry Teistin – the only means of public transport between Sandoy and Streymoy for many years – will offer people a chance to bid the ferry route a proper goodbye with some special trips and an open event.
Earlier this year, Hanna á Reynatúgvu, a member of the Municipal Council of Sandur, the largest settlement on Sandoy, told www.local.fo that local residents there hope to see a change in the downward population trend.
“With this new tunnel, our island will be fully connected to the Mainland, with Tórshavn just half an hour’s drive from here,” she said. “That is a huge change and will bring many possibilities and options.”
A grand opening ceremony on Thursday afternoon is slated to take place near the mouth of the tunnel at Traðardalur, Sandoy.
The tunnel option has been the subject of parliamentary debate in Edinburgh - https://www.welovestornoway.com/index.php/articles/31602-tunnel-vision-gains-support
The famous roundabout in the Eysturoy Tunnel at its December 2020 opening
