The Atlantic Ocean Road: eight kilometres across the skerries

On 7 July 1989 the transport minister, William Engseth, cut the ribbon on a road that many people had argued against. It ran for 8,274 metres from Vevang on the mainland to Averøya, the island across the mouth of the Kornstadfjord, jumping from islet to islet and skerry to skerry on stone embankments and bridges. It replaced the ferry between Ørjavik and Tøvik. It was named Atlanterhavsvegen — the Atlantic Ocean Road.

The sea it faces is Hustadvika, a stretch of open coast that Klikk’s motoring writers, in a history of the road, call one of the most dangerous waters in Norway. In 2019 the cruise ship Viking Sky, with 1,373 people on board, lost engine power there in bad weather. On a calm summer day the road is a pleasant drive between two small towns. In a storm from the north-west it is something else.

A railway that never came

The line across the islands was first drawn for a railway. Early in the twentieth century there were plans for a line along this coast; Wikipedia says the county council chose an outer route for it in 1921, and that in 1935 parliament opted for a line to Åndalsnes instead. Lokalhistoriewiki, the Norwegian local-history wiki, records that the railway plans for the route were shelved for good that year.

The idea came back as a road. Planning began in the 1970s, and a company to collect the tolls, Atlanterhavsveien AS, was set up in 1970.

Approved by one vote

Not everyone wanted it. Klikk reports that the road director of Møre og Romsdal did not recommend the project: he expected so little traffic that the tolls would barely pay the staff at the toll booth. Environmental groups were sceptical, and local interest was lukewarm. The county executive committee passed the project by a majority of one vote.

Work began on 1 August 1983. According to Klikk, it took six years and twelve hurricanes to finish. The road cost 122 million kroner in 1989 money. Wikipedia, citing the regional tourist office, says a quarter of that was borrowed against future tolls, a quarter came from job-creation funds and half from state road grants.

The bridges

Most sources — Visit Norway and Store norske leksikon among them — say the road crosses eight bridges. Officially there are seven: Statens vegvesen, which runs the road, counts Hulvågbrua as one bridge with one name, though some count it as two, which is probably where the eighth comes from. When Norway’s Directorate for Cultural Heritage, Riksantikvaren, listed the road as a protected heritage site, its listing named seven, from Klipabrua in the west to Litllauvøybrua in the east. All are concrete. According to the listing:

• Klipabrua (1985) is 119 metres long and crosses Vevangstraumen.
• Hulvågbrua (1987) is 208 metres long, with nine spans.
• Myrbærholmbrua (1987) is 87 metres long. Steel fishing bridges were added on both sides in 2010.
• Storseisundbrua (1988) is 260 metres long, in three spans.
• Geitøybrua (1988) and Storlauvøybrua (1988) are both 45 metres long.
• Litllauvøybrua (1988) is 116 metres long, in five spans, with a sailing clearance of about 10 metres.

The heritage listing calls the design itself sober: curves and sailing heights were set by function. What makes it spectacular is where it stands — at the very edge of the open sea, where the road partly follows the flat land and partly curves on embankments across the islets. The listing’s stated aim is to preserve it as an example of a 1980s coastal road, and to keep the experience of the road both from the land and from the sea.

Storseisundbrua

The bridge in the photographs is Storseisundbrua. Riksantikvaren describes it as a free cantilever bridge — built outward, section by section, without support from below while it was going up. It rises steeply to a sailing clearance of about 23 metres, so that larger ships can pass under it. Seen from the side, it looks as if the road climbs into the sky and stops. Fjord Norway calls it the most photographed spot on the route.

In June 2019 a second unit filmed on the road for the James Bond film No Time to Die, with an Aston Martin V8 Vantage, the fan site MI6-HQ reported.

Paid off five years early

The road director was wrong about the traffic. The tolls were meant to run for fifteen years. They were removed in June 1999, after ten, because far more people drove the road than had been forecast. Klikk reports just under 605,000 vehicle passages in 2015, and 657,000 in 2019 — 320,000 of them between May and August.

In 2005 the road won Århundrets byggverk, Norway’s “construction of the century”, a public vote organised by NRK and the construction industry to mark a hundred years since the union with Sweden was dissolved. Teknisk Ukeblad reported that it took almost a third of the more than 40,000 votes, ahead of the Svinesund bridges, and that Crown Prince Haakon presented the award.

Stopping on the road

The Atlantic Ocean Road is the centre of a longer national scenic route, Nasjonale turistveger’s Atlanterhavsvegen, which runs 36 km from Bud to Kårvåg. The stops along it were built for the weather.

At Eldhusøya, by Storseisundbrua, an elevated walkway runs round the islet. Fjord Norway gives its length as 550 metres; Nasjonale turistveger says it is open every day of the year, as are the toilets. The architects were Ghilardi+Hellsten. At Myrbærholmbrua, people fish from the steel bridges on both sides of the road. On Geitøya there is a large car park, short walks to the hilltops and a fishing path under the bridge.

On the stretch towards Bud, the viewing platform at Askevågen stands at the end of a breakwater. Its glass walls, Nasjonale turistveger says, are there for protection against the weather and spray.

When the sea comes over

The tourist boards sell the storms as much as the summer. Visit Norway contrasts a calm summer drive with “a foam-sprayed journey in a storm from the northwest”. Fjord Norway says the road is open 365 days a year, “and winter may be when it’s at its most dramatic”, and warns that saltwater may splash over the road during storms.

Occasionally the road shuts. On 25 January 2008, the local newspaper Tidens Krav reported, it was closed for a couple of hours in a storm — mainly because of the wind blowing across the carriageway, which was dangerous for larger vehicles, rather than the waves. On 29 January 2016, during another storm, the paper reported that the Atlantic Ocean Road and all the bridges in Kristiansund were closed.

Before you go

No toll. The road itself has been toll-free since June 1999. The Atlantic Ocean Tunnel (Atlanterhavstunnelen) between Kristiansund and Averøy, opened at the end of 2009, used to be tolled — 102 kroner for a car. That ended on 1 July 2020, when Norway’s last staffed toll station was taken away, Teknisk Ukeblad reported.

Open all year. There is no seasonal closure. In storms, check the weather and the road status with Statens vegvesen before you set out, and expect strong crosswinds on the bridges; Nasjonale turistveger warns cyclists in particular.

Motorhomes. Motorhome and caravan toilets may not be emptied at the rest-area toilets. Nasjonale turistveger lists dump stations in Kårvåg, Vevang, Eide, Bud, Kristiansund and Molde.

On the way. On our three-day route from Kristiansund to Molde, the Atlantic Ocean Road gets a day of its own, between a night on Averøy and the drive on to Molde.