New roads, new paving, widening of road sections and maintenance of bridges and tunnels. Summer is almost here and in connection with the reduction of professional traffic and work commuting, the Swedish Transport Administration is starting a lot of road work throughout the country.
There is today a great need for maintenance on many roads, including in Norrbotten, the road standard is poor in several places. The Swedish Transport Administration’s goal with the maintenance is to try to increase traffic safety, reduce the risk of acute errors and remove bottlenecks that disrupt the flow of traffic.
Roads affected this summer
This summer, road users will notice maintenance work on the E4 between Piteå and Töre in Norrbotten, on the E6 both north and south of Uddevalla, on road 273 at the Arlanda interchange and in the Tingstad tunnel on the E6 in Gothenburg.
– We always strive to plan and carry out our works so that they have as little traffic impact as possible. In some cases, unfortunately, it is not possible to avoid some problems during the construction period and then we work together to minimize the problems, says Helena Sundberg, regional director at the Swedish Transport Administration, about this summer’s planned maintenance work in the Stockholm area.
Trafikverket: Missing 2-3 billion
This year’s road works are taking place on a larger scale than in previous years, says Trafikverket’s press manager Bengt Olsson. The government invests approximately SEK 16 billion in maintenance, but according to Bengt Olsson, more is needed for the roads to maintain the correct standard.
– We would need around SEK 2-3 billion more per year. Some parts of the road network will continue to be degraded so this is to maintain it to today’s standard, but upgrading the road standard overall across the country is not possible. We have to prioritize hard when we make this effort, he says.
This is where traffic is most affected this summer – in the clip above, Trafikverket’s Bengt Olsson lists the most affected areas.