Why Sweden is Gambling $4BN on this Super-Deep Tunnel

Stockholm is in a race to fix it's traffic congestion. But will this really work?

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Additional footage and images courtesy of Thomas Öhrling, Swedish Transport Administration

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[zeytelaloi]

The problem isn't congestion in Stockholm per-se among its inhabitants; introducing more public transport would help with that. The problem is that Stockholm, as is mentioned, is built on a number of islands, between the Mälaren lake and the Baltic Sea, the former of which serves as ~150 km wide barrier. As a result, Stockholm serves as the only land bridge along the east coast.

In addition to the inhabitants of Stockholm, there is a lot of traffic that needs to go from other parts of Sweden north and south of Stockholm. Because there are massive waterways they need to pass through the city, and there are currently essentially only two proper highways. One goes through the very center of the city - past the historical old town - and the other, Essingeleden, passes slightly to the west of it. (There are two smaller bridges but those are really just intended for city busses, vans, few passenger cars, bicyclists, etc - not long-haul trucks carrying containers)

We've had incidents in the past where a long-haul truck crashed and blocked several lanes of traffic on the Essingeleden and it was catastrophic for not just the city's inhabitants but all other logistics passing through the city.

The Stockholm bypass is meant to offer one additional route bypassing the center completely. While some Stockholmers might use it to cut their driving commute travels, and it will off-load the highways in the center, in practice the really big beneficiaries will be long-haul truck drivers.

[Crabman_]

Who the hell provided that b-roll at 6:15 ?!? 💀

[plaveccz]

Damn, I didnt expect to see this here. I spent 5 years working on this project on one of the sections. We had about 4 kilometers of main tunnels + all small connection tunnels and ramps, which added up to about 20 kilometers of tunnel. It was very interesting work.

[Josephoz]

FYI this is not only about congestion. The focus is to mainly shift away throughrunning traffic from the city center and also to reduce vulnerability of the road system in Stockholm.

[zenvoidd]

"More lanes have been added but it's not enough" yeah bro just one more lane bro we'll fix it bro one more lane

[philipbengtsson]

The IKEA highway, connecting the two stores north and south of the city.

[katherinebrubaker]

2:44 Fred: This enormous project isn't built in a day
Me: *he's going to talk about the sponsor*

[leonkernan]

6:14 Someone teach that guy how to use a petrol pump!!!

[wk]

I admire your self restraint with not including even a single “Förbifart” joke.

[axelliljencrantz]

All the stock footage was actually of Stockholm, the description of the project as well as the history of traffic in Stockholm was accurate. Impressive!

[reddimus]

It would be cool for you to look back at some of your older episodes and check back on the status of those construction projects today!

[tobias_dahlberg]

Seeing a lot of weird takes from people who presumably do not understand the situation. A bypass is needed. The E4 is one of if not the most trafficked highway in Sweden, running along the entire country and going through Stockholm. There are countless journeys being taken going north or south and they all have to pass THROUGH the capital on the current E4. A bypass can divert all those cars and semi-trucks so that the traffic that you see in the city is basically only city traffic, no one just passing through. If you're going from Sundsvall to Jönköping, why would you need to drive through the capital and add to the traffic there?. It's like if every journey going along the east coast of the United States HAD to go through Washington D.C

[johan]

Passing by my hometown.. We been waiting long rime for this tunnel..

[thomash]

Besides this project they are also building out the metro network a lot. What I still don’t understand is with so much tunneling being done that the whole klarastrandsleden to centralbron is not being tunneled. Mind boggling how a major road like that can just pass through the middle of the city.

[EyesOfByes]

So, when are you gonna cover the rail tunnel project Västlänken in Gothenburg? It would be a really good case study on contruction project controversy.

[isaks]

To everyone who are against this project saying this is "just another lane". You are wrong. This isnt Houston where they increase to infinite lanes. This project is to divert the traffic from the city center. There is no reason for a highway to cut right through city centers like in stupid american cities. European cities have less traffic because our highways tend to be build around our cities, not straight through. This is exactly what this project is about.

[addvurtbikes]

The tunnel goes from where I live to where my grandmother lives. She's 85. It won't be completed before we both pass away from old age. I'm 34.

[lipen]

We have a tunnel going through Hallandsåsen that cost around 11, 9BN to build

[ichVII]

I like that at 0:45, when he says "officials are looking for another solution", the trains are right in sight. The video just derailed a bit after that.

[PWDino]

I have been waiting a long time for this video! As it's such a big project i Thought it would pop up here sooner or later. And i'm not disappointed by it either!
Would be cool if you made a video about the extension of the subway system in stockholm as well as they are building the deepest subway station in the world as well as having had some big chalanges of a very different kind to what you normaly hear about!