Road Administration: Not more expensive to build motorways in Norway
Building a motorway in Norway costs about the same as in Sweden and Denmark, states the Norwegian Public Roads Administration.
Research.no has gained access to a new report prepared by the Norwegian Public Roads Administration in cooperation with the corresponding Swedish and Danish agencies. The Ministry of Transport and Communications has requested the report.
The Norwegian Public Roads Administration has developed a method for comparing the price of construction of motorways. Here the price of the road building is adjusted for such as parameters as bridges, tunnels, complicated terrain and ground conditions.
If these conditions are added and some other factors are included in the calculation the price for building a highway is about the same in the three countries, the report concludes. Norway definitively has more difficult terrain to cope with than Denmark
The only thing the Norwegian Public Roads Administration concludes is factually more expensive in Norway than in our neighbouring countries is the wages paid to the road workers.
Value for money, comparatively
Higher wages increases the price of Norwegian highways by 10 percent. As opposed to Sweden, roadworks are not VAT exempt in Norway. The VAT does however not really make a difference, as it is just shuffling money around in the system in this case.
In fact, the calculations made in cooperation with the corresponding agencies in Sweden and Denmark show that parts of the new E6 along Mjøsa appear as second cheapest of the routes that are compared, weighed according to the model used.
– Construction of motorways in Norway is good compared to projects in Sweden and Denmark. If the prerequisites are equal, the costs are about the same, says Terje Moe Gustavsen, Deputy Director General.
© NTB Scanpix / Norway Today
