The Atlantic Ocean Road has been
honoured by the British newspaper The Guardian by being labelled the best road
in the world. The Atlantic Ocean Road, found in Norway, is a tourist attraction
in its own right. It is a fraction of highway 64 in Norway and is known as
Atlanterhavsveien in the language of the country. The building of the road
began on the 1st of August in the year 1983. The road was inaugurated on
the 7th of July in the year 1989. In this time, when the building was
still underway, as many as 12 storms the magnitude of full hurricanes occurred
in the region, yet the finished product is nothing short of impressive.
The Atlantic Ocean Road or the Atlantic
Road is a 8.3-kilometer (5.2 mi) long section of County Road 64 which runs
through an archipelago in Eide and Averøy in Møre og Romsdal, Norway. The fixed
link passes by Hustadvika, an unsheltered part of the Norwegian Sea, connecting
the island of Averøy with the mainland and Romsdalshalvøya peninsula. The road
runs between the villages of Kårvåg on Averøy and Vevang in Eida. The road is
built on several small islands and skerries, which are connected by several
causeways, viaducts and eight bridges—the most prominent being Storseisundet
Bridge.
The route was originally proposed as a
railway line in the early 20th century, but this was ultimately abandoned.
Serious planning of the road started in the 1970s, and construction started on
1 August 1983. During construction, the area was hit by twelve European
windstorms. The road was opened on 7 July 1989, having cost 122 million
Norwegian krone (NOK), of which 25 percent was financed with tolls and the rest
from public grants. Collection of tolls was scheduled to run for 15 years, but
by June 1999 the road was paid off and the toll removed. The road is preserved
as a cultural heritage site and is classified as a National Tourist Route.
It
is a popular site to film automotive commercials, has been declared the world's
best road trip, and been awarded the title as "Norwegian Construction of
the Century". In 2009, the Atlantic Ocean Tunnel opened from Averøy to
Kristiansund; combined, they have become a second fixed link between
Kristiansund and Molde.
Norway's Atlantic Ocean Road topped The
Guardian's list of the Five Best Road Trips in 2006. The road features eight
architecturally interesting bridges and viewpoints that will take your breath
away, and it even passes by scuba-diving resorts. But the 5.2-mile-long stretch
also has a dark side: storms—lots of 'em. When the fierce Norwegian Sea whips
its fury upon windshields, visibility drops and danger rises. So file this one
under "scenic but deadly."
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