Norway’s Metrostav to build tunnel in Faroe Islands

The Norwegian subsidiary of the largest Czech construction company Metrostav has won its first contract in the Faroe Islands, which were recently connected by a unique underwater highway with an underground roundabout. Metrostav will be building a road tunnel on the southernmost Faroese island of Sudurøy. The 1.2 km long tunnel will connect the villages of Fámjin and Ørðavíkar, replacing a narrow mountain road that is difficult to pass, especially in winter. Construction is expected to start this autumn.

“We have been conquering northern Europe for 16 years and during that time we have repeatedly planted imaginary flags in Norway, Finland, Sweden and Iceland. Success and good references in these prestigious markets have enabled us to bid for contracts in somewhat exotic destinations such as Greenland. However, we have only just celebrated our first win in the Faroe Islands. It is a small-scale contract, but of great importance. The Faroe Islands are a very attractive location for tunnelers due to the interesting number of newly competed tunnel projects,” says Ales Richter, Sales Director at Metrostav Norge AS.

Metrostav Norge AS’s team of excavators will be tasked with excavating a total of 80,000 cubic metres of rock and then insulating 9,000 square metres. The excavations will be carried out using the traditional Scandinavian Drill & Blast method, which Metrostav’s workers have successfully built dozens of kilometres of tunnels, mainly in Norway, Finland and Iceland. The new road tunnel in the Faroe Islands will have a width of 8.5 metres and a profile of 65 square metres. It will be followed by a kilometre of new road towards Ørðavík and 400 metres towards Fámjin.

“We are entering an unfamiliar environment outside the European Union and the European Economic Area and we also have to deal with the language barrier, as the languages of the contract are Faroese and Danish. On the other hand, some of the risk parameters, such as the isolated construction site, complicated supply and strong winds, are already familiar to us from other Nordic countries and we know how to deal with them,” explains Jiří Horčička, Production Director for Metrostav Norge AS.

Construction will start in October this year and is expected to be completed in September 2023. The embossing itself will take approximately 33 weeks. Metrostav Norge AS is participating in the project as a subcontractor to Faroese construction company J&K Petersen. The project investor is Landsverk, the Faroese equivalent of the Czech Railways. The price of the contract, which includes only the Czech subcontract, amounts to CZK 215 million.

Metrostav Group, which represents the largest Czech construction company, has been operating in Northern Europe since 2006. Since then, it has completed 15 projects, including the Helsinki metro line tunnels, the unique salmon road bridge in Norway and the longest road tunnel in Iceland. In total, it has so far driven over 48 kilometres of tunnels in Scandinavia. At present, foreign contracts account for 40% of the Group’s turnover.

Contact details

Vojtěch Kostiha
Spokesman of Metrostav Group
Metrostav a.s. Koželužská 2450/4 180 00 Prague 8
T 266 019 715, M 606 629 225
vojtech.kostiha@metrostav.cz,