The Unique Undersea Tunnels That Link the Faroe Islands [5:15]

YouTube ^ | August 16, 2024 | BBC Global

[SunkenCiv]

High in the North Atlantic, the Faroe Islands is an isolated archipelago home to just 54,000 people. 

Tunnel building began in the 1960s and has transformed this tiny island nation both geographically and socially. 

More than two dozen tunnels now link communities that were once separated by mountains or sea. 

The newest tunnels are engineering marvels burrowing under the sea. 

Recently, the longest tunnel yet opened to the southern island of Sandoy, changing the lives of its small community. 

The Unique Undersea Tunnels That Link the Faroe Islands | 5:15 
BBC Global | 717K subscribers | 689,885 views | August 16, 2024

[SunkenCiv]

YouTube transcript reformatted at textformatter.ai follows.

[SunkenCiv]

Tunnel Overview

If you take a tiny country like this, you'll not find so many tunnels as in the Faroe Islands. We started to dig the first tunnels back in the 60s, so today we have around 25 tunnels in the Faroe Islands. We are actually moving from where we were, a group of islands, to have one island where we all are connected. This one is actually the longest one; it is 10.8 km long.

Current Progress

Now we are in the sand tunnel; it's a sub-tunnel between Uhsand and Stowe. We are standing at the deepest point in it; we are on minus 150 m. We have removed about 1 million cubic meters of solid rock to go under the FS and is one of the 18 islands in the Faroe Islands. The population is around 1,200 to 1,300 people. It's been quite isolated. Sandos seem to be more like the Ferro Islands, used to be 15-20 years ago. Of course, the tunnel will change that; it will be a part of the mainland.

A lot of people travel back and forth to the mainland because the jobs are in the main area. It can be very difficult in the wintertime because of the weather and the rough sea. You spend a lot less time traveling, and an errand that will take you 6 hours out of the day will now take you maybe half an hour. I think that the tunnel will change a lot for us because we do expect a lot more tourists, and we can already see now that we do have a lot more bookings.

Population Trends

For many years, one of our biggest challenges in the Faroe Islands has been that the population has decreased, but now it is slowly starting to get better. We have seen a lot of interest in buying houses here. Our biggest hope is that we will get young people here because we have been missing often a whole generation of people. Suay has experienced five to six decades of decline. After the tunnel started, the population was stabilized, and now we see a small growth. It's been about connecting people and connecting places living on islands as we do, isolated in the middle of the North Atlantic. Mobility is key.

Infrastructure Investment

We have been investing heavily in infrastructure, first in the beginning in boats, ships, and ferries connecting towns, villages, and islands, and afterwards, of course, roads and tunnels. It's a huge amount. This is a mega project to see an island get this kind of investment; it is quite unique. Per capita, it's by far, I think, the biggest infrastructural investment in a tunnel. As far as I know, you could ask if it's economically viable, but for us, it makes a lot of sense. We have one of the strongest economies in the world. Part of our nation building is actually to become closer together.

There are people who feel that that's too much money to spend on infrastructure as opposed to money that could be spent on health or education, and so on. So there is an ongoing debate. There is a lot of money to invest in 1,300 people, but that's also one of the ideas behind this country is to have people living in all the different places of the Faroe Islands.

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

Future Plans

It's twice the project. We now have a route, and we are working on the financial plans of the project. When or if that tunnel will be done, around 99% of the people in the Faroe Islands will be connected into one road system and one society.

YouTube transcript reformatted at textformatter.ai follows.

[SunkenCiv]

• Danish king changes coat of arms amid row with Trump over Greenland [02/04/2025]
• 78 whales slaughtered in front of cruise passengers in Faroe Islands [07/16/2023]
• Sedimentary DNA and molecular evidence for early human occupation of the Faroe Islands [01/02/2022]
• Faroe Islands: Tested, isolated, boosted group STILL infected with Omicron [01/01/2022]
• Faroe Islands: Anger over killing of 1,400 dolphins in one day [09/15/2021]
• A Complete Guide to the March 20th Total Solar Eclipse [Just Hop Over to the Faroe Islands] [03/11/2015]

[abb]

Reckon when/if tunnels will link Asia/North America across the Bering Strait?

[LegendHasIt]

Tunneling anywhere isn’t cheap, and even more expensive under the ocean. I wonder what the real reason for these tunnels are... The low population and lack of any substantial industry wouldn’t seem to make it worthwhile.

Maybe there is a military reason behind it.

[SunkenCiv]

When monkeys fly out of muh butt.

[BenLurkin]

Interesting

[Paal Gulli]

Wikipedia says the population of the Faroes is 56,000. How on earth do they raise the capital for an infrastrcture project of that scale?

Interesting the one lady in the video with a Scottish accent. I guess some people get addicted to living in icy places.

[cyclotic]

My daughter had a friend who lives on the Faroe Islands. The place looks stunning. She had planned to go visit her but they weren’t able to put it together yet.

[HartleyMBaldwin]

That’s what I was wondering too. Who’s paying for this and why?

[BenLurkin]

Looks like the Danes have a navy base there.

[PeterPrinciple]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tunnels_of_the_Faroe_Islands

Public works authority Landsverk operates the national road network, excluding the four sub-sea toll tunnels. These tunnels are each operated by its own state-owned limited company, but the four companies are brought together under a single brand and organisation, Tunnil p/F. This company administers the tolls, which charged are via number plate recognition and collected at petrol stations or car rental companies upon return of the car. Reduced fares are available for vehicles with a subscription (in Faroese: hald). A 2022 poll suggested continued support for toll charges.[35]

[zeestephen]

I thought this meant a tunnel between Scotland and the Faroe Islands - 200 miles apart!

Whoops!

Back to reality...

[SunkenCiv]

Wow, that might be a good idea... pick up the Shetlands, Orkneys, then the mainland...

[Deaf Smith]

I used to have a Cape Cod Tunnel pass on my Texas plated Blazer.

[Vermont Lt]

If anyone wants to see a map:

https://infranorth.eu/blog/light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel-transport-infrastructures-in-the-faroe-islands/

[SunkenCiv]

😊

[SunkenCiv]

Thx!

[alternatives?]

Say a tunnel costs $100,000,000. With 53,000 people it costs each $1,887. I have no idea if $100 million is a good number but it seems low.

[alternatives?]

Looks like the land is heavily sloped and cold which would make building houses and roads expensive. Ditto high heating costs. There doesn’t seem to be many trees.