Bjorøy is an island in Fjell

Fjell

Fjell is a municipality in the county of Hordaland, Norway. The parish of Fjæld was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838...

 municipality, Hordaland

Hordaland

is a county in Norway, bordering Sogn og Fjordane, Buskerud, Telemark and Rogaland. Hordaland is the third largest county after Akershus and Oslo by population. The county administration is located in Bergen...

, Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

. Located south of Litlesotra

Sotra

Sotra is the name of an archipelago in Hordaland, Norway, just west of Bergen. The largest island is Store Sotra, while the second-largest and most populated is Litlesotra. The latter and part of Store Sotra are part of Fjell, while southern Sotra is part of Sund. Roughly 25,000 people live on Sotra...

, Bjorøy is connected to Bergen

Bergen

Bergen is the second largest city in Norway with a population of as of , . Bergen is the administrative centre of Hordaland county. Greater Bergen or Bergen Metropolitan Area as defined by Statistics Norway, has a population of as of , ....

 by a subsea road tunnel, Bjorøytunnelen

Bjorøytunnelen

The Bjorøy Tunnel is a long subsea road tunnel connecting Bjorøy in Fjell to the mainland at Hilleren in Bergen, Norway. Part of Hordaland County Road 207, it crosses underneath Vatlestraumen, reaching below mean sea level. It serves as a fixed link for 500 people on Bjorøy and Tyssøy, in...

. It is also connected to the small island of Tyssøy

Tyssøy

Tyssøy is an island in Sund, Norway in Raunefjorden. It has a population of 60 and connects to Bjorøy to the north via a bridge. The island is named for the Norse god Týr....

 in Sund

Sund, Norway

Sund is a municipality in the county of Hordaland, Norway. Sund covers the southern part of the island of Store Sotra, west of Bergen, and many smaller, surrounding islands. The history of the municipality dates back to 1838, when Sund was first established as a formannskapsdistrikt, the precursor...

 municipality by a bridge. Bjorøy has approximately 500 inhabitants, and several hundred cabins.

History

Due to its favourable location, proximity to Bergen, and the construction of the tunnel, the island has in recent years been seeing strong population growth. To prevent uncontrolled development, a building ban was instituted in 2007 but was later removed. The ban was instituted after a non-legally binding roof on ten new houses per year, whose purpose was to ensure that the population growth did not surpass the growth of drinking water availability and kindergarten capacity, among other things, proved ineffective.

Geography

Bjorøy is located in the Raunefjord between the island of Store Sotra and Bergen. Although Bjorøy is connected only to Bergen by any means, the island is part of Fjell municipality. To its south is the smaller island of Tyssøy in Sund

Sund, Norway

Sund is a municipality in the county of Hordaland, Norway. Sund covers the southern part of the island of Store Sotra, west of Bergen, and many smaller, surrounding islands. The history of the municipality dates back to 1838, when Sund was first established as a formannskapsdistrikt, the precursor...

 municipality, connected to Bjorøy by a bridge.

Transport

The subsea tunnel Bjorøytunnelen was opened in 1996, replacing the ferry between the island and Alvøen

Alvøen

Alvøen or Alvøy is the name of a former farm and historic site in the Laksevåg borough of the city of Bergen, Norway.-History:In 1626, a gunpowder mill and corn mill were started on the site. Later it started production of saltpeter, linseed oil and paper...

 in Bergen. Plans for a tunnel connecting Bjorøy with Bergen were presented in the late 1980s. By the early 1990s, the island's population had been decreasing for several years, and the sole grocery store on the island closed in 1991. In 1993, the Norwegian government approved the plans for the tunnel, and construction began the same year. The construction of the tunnel proved challenging: the bedrock

Bedrock

In stratigraphy, bedrock is the native consolidated rock underlying the surface of a terrestrial planet, usually the Earth. Above the bedrock is usually an area of broken and weathered unconsolidated rock in the basal subsoil...

quality was worse than anticipated. Delayed by almost a year, the tunnel finally opened on 7 May 1996.