The undersea tunnel of the Faroe Islands with a roundabout 72 meters beneath the fjord
Some travel facts stay with you for a while, and this one from Diario del Viajero is one of them: in the Faroe Islands there is a roundabout inside an undersea tunnel. The tunnel is Eysturoyartunnilin, which connects Tórshavn, on Streymoy, with Runavík and Strendur, on Eysturoy.
The numbers are impressive. The tunnel is 11,240 meters long, split across three branches: 7,460 from Hvítanes to the roundabout, 2,153 toward Saltnes and 1,625 toward Strendur. The deepest point lies 187 meters below sea level, and the roundabout sits 72.6 meters below the fjord's surface. The cross-section is 10.5 meters wide, with a 7-meter carriageway for two lanes, and no ramp exceeds a 5% gradient.
The project cost 1.3 billion Danish kroner, about 174 million euros, the largest infrastructure investment in Faroese history. The contract with the Swedish builder NCC was signed on November 8, 2016, the first blast took place on February 21, 2017, the crews met under the seabed on June 7, 2019, and the tunnel opened on December 19, 2020. In the center, a steel sculpture of roughly 80 meters by Tróndur Patursson wraps around the natural rock pillar that gives the roundabout its name.
For travelers, here is the practical part: it is a road in service, so you cannot stop to take photos. According to the article, the toll comes to about 23 euros per trip. In return, the journey from Tórshavn to Runavík or Strendur fell from 55 to 17 kilometers and from 64 to 16 minutes, and the trip from Tórshavn to Klaksvík dropped from 68 to 36 minutes. In 2025, about 6,400 vehicles passed through each day.
The piece adds an interesting footnote: this would be the first and only roundabout in an undersea tunnel in the world until Norway opens the 26.7-kilometer Rogfast, planned for summer 2033. I like how a country of about 55,000 people has changed daily life with a single project.
Source: Diario del Viajero
The numbers are impressive. The tunnel is 11,240 meters long, split across three branches: 7,460 from Hvítanes to the roundabout, 2,153 toward Saltnes and 1,625 toward Strendur. The deepest point lies 187 meters below sea level, and the roundabout sits 72.6 meters below the fjord's surface. The cross-section is 10.5 meters wide, with a 7-meter carriageway for two lanes, and no ramp exceeds a 5% gradient.
The project cost 1.3 billion Danish kroner, about 174 million euros, the largest infrastructure investment in Faroese history. The contract with the Swedish builder NCC was signed on November 8, 2016, the first blast took place on February 21, 2017, the crews met under the seabed on June 7, 2019, and the tunnel opened on December 19, 2020. In the center, a steel sculpture of roughly 80 meters by Tróndur Patursson wraps around the natural rock pillar that gives the roundabout its name.
For travelers, here is the practical part: it is a road in service, so you cannot stop to take photos. According to the article, the toll comes to about 23 euros per trip. In return, the journey from Tórshavn to Runavík or Strendur fell from 55 to 17 kilometers and from 64 to 16 minutes, and the trip from Tórshavn to Klaksvík dropped from 68 to 36 minutes. In 2025, about 6,400 vehicles passed through each day.
The piece adds an interesting footnote: this would be the first and only roundabout in an undersea tunnel in the world until Norway opens the 26.7-kilometer Rogfast, planned for summer 2033. I like how a country of about 55,000 people has changed daily life with a single project.
Source: Diario del Viajero
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