On Thursday afternoon, a boulder of approximately 50 tonnes thundered down the mountainside in Storfjord – and straight down on the busy E6.
Less than 20 minutes ago
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Four meters high, six meters long and two meters wide.
It is the estimate mayor Geir Varvik has on the size of the rock that suddenly slid down the mountainside in Storfjord in Troms.
– There will be many, many tons in total. Absolutely solid, simply, says Varvik to Thursday night VG.
– It is too little to say that it was a big rock. There are parts of a cliff that have ended up in the middle of the road, he says.
The cliff has detached from a mountain section with a lot of loose stones, according to the mayor. It thundered down, jumped halfway across the road, swept away parts of the crash barrier and ended up in the spring.
– It was only a few seconds away that it went really wrong. There has been an incredible amount of traffic on the road today. One can only imagine what could have happened, says Varvik.
The mayor jumped straight into the car when he received a phone call from a colleague who heard the noise from the landslide.
The road on E6 is prone to landslides with steep mountains, and there have been several landslides in the area before.
– We should be happy that, once again, it went well and that no one was injured, he says.
Operations Manager Roy Tore Meyer in Troms police district estimates that the stone is around 50 tonnes. He says that the landslide probably happened as a result of precipitation, and that the rock may have come loose from the rock at a height of as high as 800 meters.
– The road binds Northern Norway together, and you can be happy that no one passed right then, he says to VG.
The road opened just before 11 pm on Thursday night, according to Mayor Varvik. Veitrafikksentralen states that one lane is open for traffic, and that a geologist will carry out investigations on site on Friday.
– It is clear that the Norwegian Public Roads Administration has a job ahead of it, when half the carriageway has been smashed, says Varvik.
He believes that climate change and mild weather have a lot to say for the risk of landslides in the area.
– There has been talk of a tunnel nearby where it is even more dangerous. But for reasons that are inexplicable to us, these plans have been removed from the National Transport Plan in the coming planning period. We will not give up until it is in place, the mayor emphasizes.
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