The NCA had hoped to transport stone masses directly out of the ship tunnel to the planned new industrial areas at Kjøde and Lesto using dump trucks, without the additional cost of reloading.
– We needed a dispensation from the road authorities to be allowed to do this. Unfortunately, our dispensation application was denied. It's a pity because this was a good opportunity for us to save time and money in the project, which we are mandated by the authorities to do. The dump truck operation was supposed to help finance the mass transport by barge to build and develop business initiatives in three municipalities around the ship tunnel, says project manager Terje Skjeppestad.
No and yes
In short, the Norwegian Public Roads Administration (Vegdirektoratet) has rejected the proposal for the NCA to operate dump trucks on the county roads on both sides of the ship tunnel (FV. 618 and FV. 620), but they have approved crossing of the county road at Kjøde (FV. 620) with dump trucks under specified conditions.
– This is better than nothing, but it was more important for us to operate dump trucks on the county road, says Skjeppestad, who also mentioned that it's good to finally receive a response from the road authorities.
The NCA submitted their dispensation application in November.
Requirement to build an intersection
– We see that the Public Roads Administration writes that this has been a difficult case that required a long processing time. We would have liked to receive the decision earlier. Now we must look forward and address another difficult issue, namely the objections from Vestland County Municipality to the regulation plan for the ship tunnel. Hopefully, the county will not insist that we build road intersections at Eide before constructing the ship tunnel. We don't quite understand this order requirement, which will cost us a lot of time and money, says Skjeppestad.
The matter will be discussed at a mediation meeting with the County Governor (Statsforvalteren) on May 23rd.
No appeal
The rejection from the Norwegian Public Roads Administration (Vegdirektoratet) can be appealed within three weeks.
– We will not be appealing the decision regarding dump truck operations. We need to move forward with the ship tunnel project and accept the rejection, says Skjeppestad.